The use of the double negative has long been a colloquially
accepted part of the English language.
It’s generally used to reinforce a negative concept, or the absence of
something: “Mama didn’t raise no fool!” is
a famous example. That’s nice, but
apparently, she did. The negatives, like
in math, cancel one another, and the statement becomes positive: “Mama raised a fool!” One might better say, “Mama didn’t raise a
fool!” “We don’t need no education. We don’t need no false control” is the famous
Pink Floyd declaration in “The Wall.”
Again, I understand that it’s meant to say ‘We really, really don’t need
these things.” Technically, it says just
the opposite. (Now, excuse me while I
attend the crowd with the pitchforks and torches gathered outside.)
I further understand that language is context and style, as
well as syntax. “It don’t mean a thing
if it ain’t got that swing”…scibbity bip bop…OK, I can’t scat worth…scat. “It doesn’t mean a thing if it doesn’t have
that swing” just isn’t the same. It gets
you an “A” in English class, but Mr. Duke Ellington will have you “Take The ‘A’
Train” to F City.
My main complaint, overall, is that it’s one thing to know
and understand the rules and syntax and knowingly break / bend / shape them to
linguistic / lyrical purposes; and quite another to be completely unaware they’re
being broken. There are too many people
with twelve to twenty years of education who don’t seem to know better.
All right, Brian (you patiently wonder) what has you
clicking your heels and goose-stepping ‘round the metaphorical room, this time?
Jawohl. This little “gem”:
Please understand I do not fault the children. I shudder at the ‘positive’ reinforcement
they’re receiving at just the right age to give them a future of bigotry or
confusion, sadness, and pain. It is a
trap which they can escape, but it will take effort on their parts, and, most
likely, assistance from others. May they
find joy, whatever their journey may be.
(I remember such reinforcement learning my Catholic catechism lessons –
which were positively benign, compared to this.)
The cheering, clapping adults – do they realize what they’re
cheering? Well, of course, Brian – the
homosexuals who won’t go to Heaven! I
know you’re way ahead of me, at this belabored point, but what have the
children sang? “Ain’t no homo gonna
make it to Heaven.” If we do the “math,”
they’re in – all of ‘em! – goin’ to Heaven!
So let us clap and cheer and celebrate, like the ‘adults’ in the video! (You may be sure I’ve mentally substituted ‘adults’
with terms less…forgiving. In part, I
pity them, too – they have not yet awakened to the greater truths.)
Now, I have made a bit of light over something extremely sad. I know that ridicule, in itself, doesn’t lead
to understanding or solutions – though humor can be instructive.
There are many things I would say to this group, though it
would fall on deaf ears. The least I
would say, as I enjoy the irony, is, “Pardon
my laughter.”
