q&a
QUESTION: "Is the word 'we' a confusing and dangerous collectivist word?"

ANSWER: It certainly is because no one knows who we includes. Who has the authority to speak for other people? It is going back to primitive idea when the tribes didn't even have a word for I. It was always we.

When people use the word we in most cases they really mean the government, and oftentimes they do not even clarify wht government they mean. The word we is much more acceptable than government to most people who do not see the need of using mathematical words. More people are getting frightened of the government because it is taking away from each and every individual more and more of his rights to life, that is, the rights to make decisions.

Rose Wilder Lane said that we was a socialistic, collectivistic word -- so the next time you hear someone say we should do this and we should do that, etc., make them tell exactly what they mean by we. Whether they mean the government. And if they do mean government, which has nothing and is a pauper, how do they propose that the government will get the means to take care of other people, not only in this nation but also all over the world? The more we use the word we, the more we are confused.

--Pampa (Texas) Daily News, May 26, 1964, page 14
- posted by pioneergirl at 11:44 PM