tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15897842.post9104460049713744612..comments2024-03-28T08:23:22.133-04:00Comments on Beyond the Fields We Know: Friday Ramble - Radicalkerrdelunehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09779897207670867347noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15897842.post-50893453760748371002009-01-24T10:26:00.000-05:002009-01-24T10:26:00.000-05:00I'm proudly radical and quite willing to accept al...I'm proudly radical and quite willing to accept almost all (I'll adjust one to tempeh-and-potatoes) of those synonyms, pejoratives, and significations. I just wish I did a better job of living up to them.greentanglehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00693478617579227798noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15897842.post-9151858275626013192009-01-23T15:07:00.000-05:002009-01-23T15:07:00.000-05:00I think that usage of the word "radical" in the 60...I think that usage of the word "radical" in the 60's was intended to describe someone who wanted to make change, not on a superficial level, but at the "root" of things. Some of the people who wanted to instigate change at the root of things resorted to violence (or were wrongly accused of doing so), hence, an early negative association.<BR/><BR/>The word was associated with people outside the mainstream and so forth because those were often people who had made radical changes in their own lives. As we tend towards labels and gross generalizations, many different people were labeled as radicals. Because labels as such are easy handles for lumping together many types for the sake of criticism (or praise), because most people are unfamiliar with etymology, and because it's so easy to link one word with a negative (or positive) connotation when it is repeated, the word radical took on limited and negative connotations.<BR/><BR/>There is nothing inherently wrong with being rebellious, unconventional, confrontational (in response to certain circumstances) or peculiar. All of those behaviors operate in context of a perceived "norm". When a "norm" calcifies or is no longer appropriate, it's not a bad thing to seek change at the root. <BR/><BR/>Love reading your posts.Suzanne McDermotthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14785042270660883635noreply@blogger.com