One of the things I enjoy are neologisms. Another thing I marvel at is the abuse of language at the hands of the rich and the powerful. Enter the UK’s Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson.
He criticised the European Union as a “teleological construction” implying that this was bad. And this is why – yet again – the man is blowing poop wind out of his nether regions. Anything that is built has a purpose. Why would you make something without doing it for a reason. So teleology is just about having an end-point to the project you are engaged in. A construction is something that is made: like a political structure, a bridge, a fact (constructed to form an argument).
When Johnson attempted to slur the EU by stating that it was teleological, he thought he was being clever and using long complicated words to express a simple idea. He was. What made him stupid was the belief the phrase he chose implied something negative about the European union. He was wrong. It was a cold statement of fact and nothing more.
Military intelligence. Boris Johnson. Collateral damage. What do these three phrases have in common? Nothing: the first one is an oxymoron, the second is a moron and the third is a grotesque phrase which means military people killing civilians and not caring about it.
