Lunacy’s Lexicon

No babies were harmed in the making of today’s Ruminant, which features puppy parades, obscure ...

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No babies were harmed in the making of today’s Ruminant, which features puppy parades, obscure German philosophers, and an appropriately large supply of bagels. Putin’s use of Nazi rhetoric to demonize the Ukrainian government has reminded Jonah that we don’t talk enough about the importance of language in public life. The invasion has also prompted him to think about the relationship between language and nationalism, and how national interests should influence foreign policy. Are babies born as blank slates? How would isolationism change America? And will the end of this episode cost Jonah most of his long-term friendships?

Show Notes:

– The return of Dispatch Live

– Johann Fichte’s “Addresses to the German Nation”

– Johann Herder

– The Remnant with Paul Bloom

– Paul Bloom’s Just Babies

– The Remnant with John McWhorter

– Jonah’s Twitter thread on nationalism

– Jonah debates Rich Lowry on nationalism

– The Morning Dispatch breaks down the Ukraine invasion

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Comments (52)
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  1. Avatar photo
    C C Writer

    I have learned that it's a good idea to listen to the very end (even when the audio levels are frustrating).

    Please say thank you to Fair Jessica for us, for her complimentary remarks about the comments section.

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  2. David Berggren

    Your discussions of nationalism remind me of an interesting language concept. In English, a common question is "where are you from?" In the Gaelic (Scottish?) language the same question would be "who are your people?" This seems to be from the clan emphasis of the Scottish people. From this we get Queen Elizabeth, Queen of England as opposed to Mary, Queen of Scots. Queen of the land versus Queen of the people.

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  3. Avatar photo
    Bill Nelson

    The language issue is interesting. First, the comedian Jeff Foxsworthy has an interesting segment where he postulates that the southern accent results in the listener deducting 10 IQ points. Second, my daughter visited the University of Minnesota for a soccer recruiting trip. The other girl on the trip was from California. They had a discussion with the Minnesota girls over who had the accent. One of the assistant coaches was Asian and would still toss out the occasional “ofta”, a catchword for almost anything.
    I had a number of coworkers who were Asian, African or Indian who all spoke the Queen’s English with the proper upper class accent. You do make a positive assessment of their intelligence based on their language ability.

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  4. Avatar photo
    Joel Stewart

    Your talk about language resonated with me. My family comes from rural Arkansas and Oklahoma, where English is not spoken in its most exalted forms. However, I was raised and educated by a mother who insisted on proper grammar in school and in the home. Words and phrases like "ain't" and "ain't got none" were gently reprimanded and corrected. I make no claim to being a perfect English speaker, but my ability to speak publicly to diverse audiences without feeling linguistic embarrassment is due to a concentrated effort to eliminate my "redneckisms". My mother, in turn, was taught by an African-American school teacher in her small town. She still speaks fondly of Mrs. Threatt, who had been teaching in segregated schools until shortly before my mother's school years. Mrs. Threatt, according to my mother, spoke the best and clearest English of any person she has ever met. I have no doubt that in a rural Southern town, Mrs. Threatt's speaking ability opened a lot of doors that usually weren't open to a black woman. We can argue that blacks and rednecks shouldn't have to adopt standardized English in order to succeed, but it was a fact that both Mrs. Threatt and my mother figured out. I laugh when I hear politicians adopt an affected accent, because it's something that they had probably worked hard to eliminate if they had it in the first place.

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  5. El Peligroso

    Ni deberíamos

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  6. Martin Tatuch

    Language is a big part of the Ukraine v Russia problem. Russians look down on Ukrainian as a rural, farmer's language, not the language as culture. But they fear Ukrainian -- publishing in Ukrainian was banned under the Tsar in the late 19th century. All university education in the USSR was in Russian. Stalin killed the Ukrainian intellegentsia in the 1930s, and Brezhnev repressed it again in the 1960s and 1970s. Most of the leading dissidents in Ukraine have always been writers and poets. Ukrainians define themselves by language -- the national hero, Taras Shevchenko, is a poet who rose out of serfdom. In the diaspora, keeping the language has been very, very important.

    Ukrainians in Ukraine are actually much more relaxed over language. They transition between Ukrainian and Russian in the same sentence in a way that their diaspora cousins don't understand. Ukrainians and Russians in Ukraine do not/not have the language hangup. Vladimir Putin doesn't understand this, he cannot conceive it. Cooped-up in his bubble, Putin does not understand the changes in Ukrainian society in the last 20 years, certainly since the Orange Revolution. Ukraine aspires to a European life. That's what the Maidan was all about -- Yanukovych was going to sell-out Ukraine's European future to Moscow, and the people stood up against in the millions. This is an existential threat to Putin's self-image and image of Russia. He can't deal with it. So he decided to kill Ukrainians. This is what he is doing right now. But like in 2004, like in 2013-14, Ukrainians will not take it anymore, even at the cost of their own lives. We need to stand with them.

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  7. Martin Tatuch

    Language is a big part of the Ukraine v Russia problem. Russians look down on Ukrainian as a rural, farmer's language, not the language as culture. But they fear Ukrainian -- publishing in Ukrainian was banned under the Tsar in the late 19th century. All university education in the USSR was in Russian. Stalin killed the Ukrainian intellegentsia in the 1930s, and Brezhnev repressed it again in the 1960s and 1970s. Most of the leading dissidents in Ukraine have always been writers and poets. Ukrainians define themselves by language -- the national hero, Taras Shevchenko, is a poet who rose out of serfdom. In the diaspora, keeping the language has been very, very important.

    Ukrainians in Ukraine are actually much more relaxed over language. They transition between Ukrainian and Russian in the same sentence in a way that their diaspora cousins don't understand. Ukrainians and Russians in Ukraine do not/not have the language hangup. Vladimir Putin doesn't understand this, he cannot conceive it. Cooped-up in his bubble, Putin does not understand the changes in Ukrainian society in the last 20 years, certainly since the Orange Revolution. Ukraine aspires to a European life. That's what the Maidan was all about -- Yanukovych was going to sell-out Ukraine's European future to Moscow, and the people stood up against in the millions. This is an existential threat to Putin's self-image and image of Russia. He can't deal with it. So he decided to kill Ukrainians. This is what he is doing right now. But like in 2004, like in 2013-14, Ukrainians will not take it anymore, even at the cost of their own lives. We need to stand with them.

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  8. Martin Tatuch

    Language is a big part of the Ukraine v Russia problem. Russians look down on Ukrainian as a rural, farmer's language, not the language as culture. But they fear Ukrainian -- publishing in Ukrainian was banned under the Tsar in the late 19th century. All university education in the USSR was in Russian. Stalin killed the Ukrainian intellegentsia in the 1930s, and Brezhnev repressed it again in the 1960s and 1970s. Most of the leading dissidents in Ukraine have always been writers and poets. Ukrainians define themselves by language -- the national hero, Taras Shevchenko, is a poet who rose out of serfdom. In the diaspora, keeping the language has been very, very important.

    Ukrainians in Ukraine are actually much more relaxed over language. They transition between Ukrainian and Russian in the same sentence in a way that their diaspora cousins don't understand. Ukrainians and Russians in Ukraine do not/not have the language hangup. Vladimir Putin doesn't understand this, he cannot conceive it. Cooped-up in his bubble, Putin does not understand the changes in Ukrainian society in the last 20 years, certainly since the Orange Revolution. Ukraine aspires to a European life. That's what the Maidan was all about -- Yanukovych was going to sell-out Ukraine's European future to Moscow, and the people stood up against in the millions. This is an existential threat to Putin's self-image and image of Russia. He can't deal with it. So he decided to kill Ukrainians. This is what he is doing right now. But like in 2004, like in 2013-14, Ukrainians will not take it anymore, even at the cost of their own lives. We need to stand with them.

    Collapse
  9. Martin Tatuch

    Language is a big part of the Ukraine v Russia problem. Russians look down on Ukrainian as a rural, farmer's language, not the language as culture. But they fear Ukrainian -- publishing in Ukrainian was banned under the Tsar in the late 19th century. All university education in the USSR was in Russian. Stalin killed the Ukrainian intellegentsia in the 1930s, and Brezhnev repressed it again in the 1960s and 1970s. Most of the leading dissidents in Ukraine have always been writers and poets. Ukrainians define themselves by language -- the national hero, Taras Shevchenko, is a poet who rose out of serfdom. In the diaspora, keeping the language has been very, very important.

    Ukrainians in Ukraine are actually much more relaxed over language. They transition between Ukrainian and Russian in the same sentence in a way that their diaspora cousins don't understand. Ukrainians and Russians in Ukraine do not/not have the language hangup. Vladimir Putin doesn't understand this, he cannot conceive it. Cooped-up in his bubble, Putin does not understand the changes in Ukrainian society in the last 20 years, certainly since the Orange Revolution. Ukraine aspires to a European life. That's what the Maidan was all about -- Yanukovych was going to sell-out Ukraine's European future to Moscow, and the people stood up against in the millions. This is an existential threat to Putin's self-image and image of Russia. He can't deal with it. So he decided to kill Ukrainians. This is what he is doing right now. But like in 2004, like in 2013-14, Ukrainians will not take it anymore, even at the cost of their own lives. We need to stand with them.

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  10. JG Ehlers

    Was a decision made that we should all hear Jonah's ice clinking in his glass and mouth sounds?

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    1. Avatar photo
      Peter S.

      A few months ago I asked him on Twitter to please use a mute or cough button for those kinds of noises. He quickly agreed, tagging in his audio editor, and the next couple episodes were much better. But alas, it didn't last. They either forgot, or concluded I was a remnant of one and nobody else cared.

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