Chucking old labels as we embrace change

It seems we’re redefining everything around us to conform to this new era of hope/desperation. So while we’re at it how about we update the terms we use to describe some social phenomena that are no longer phenomenal.

Labels are handy, but they can become a substitute for actually saying something meaningful. If I just slap a label on somebody, that tells you all you need to know about their point of view, right? Unfortunately, media reports that are supposed to provide insight into issues often fall back to handy labels either to save space or thought. Go ahead and deconstruct a political rant or news article. Throw out the labels and, if you’re lucky, you may be left with a nugget of substance every 10 paragraphs.

But if we're going to have labels, let's keep them up to date like we do our antivirus software (a pretty apt analogy). Here are a few everyday labels to replace, with suggested updates as available. Got ideas for others? Let me know..

Business Leaders: Do you know any anymore? A leader is someone you look up to as an inspiration or an example, someone who motivates you to do your best. Someone you willingly follow. In the best situations leaders are selected by those they lead.

Who picked the CEO of Bank of America or General Motors as a business leader? Or Donald Trump? Would that term traditionally apply to them? You bet. They lead in that they best milk the system, whether it’s in bankruptcy court, government bailouts or rising to their office by failing to protest the blunders or shortsightedness in their industries. A career based on avoiding headaches is hardly a showing of leadership. Rich guys? OK. Business “interests,” maybe. Leaders? Hardly.

Consumer: While technically a correct term for an important cog in the economic machine, the Naderite version of the term has corrupted its true meaning. Nader’s vision of an aware or wary user of goods and services, one who doesn’t deserve exploding gas tanks and toxic chew toys, ignores our role as as a guilty party in the degradation of the planet. Let's face it, to be an active consumer is to be an active producer of solid waste – garbage. And, thankfully, most Americans know this today. So this is an apt term for someone taking a bite out of the world’s resources. The term for someone who buys something is actually something of a throwback: customer. Let’s start using it again, alright? As in: “The customer is always right.”

Environmentalist (see also, “tree hugger”): These are now terms of exclusion as used by many who utter them. Any “ism” is exclusionary on a subconscious level. The suggestion is of something fringy, like someone who hugs trees. I don’t hug trees, do you? Yet I want my kids to live a fulfilling life well past my age in a hospitable environment. And their kids, too. So when the Zogby poll finds 89 percent of Americans agree we need to cut our dependence on non-renewable energy sources (in 2006), or when 73 percent of self-described moderates agree with Obama's call for legislation to address climate change now, who deserves to be labeled as “the other?”

But there are ism-ists out there. People who think that there is no man-made global warming, for example, because the press feels obligated to find one of them to “balance” its coverage of reality. I suggest the deniers become the labeled, rather than the rest of us. “Denialists,” in fact, would work for the global warming issue. For those trying to rationalize their own or their business’ pollution, I would again turn to the dictionary for the literal label: polluter. As in, “Polluters countered that the legislation would harm their business.” When’s the last time you saw that in a news story?

Labeling is even more insidious than spin. It presumes a common understanding and implies what that understanding is supposed to be.

As reliable information sources grow fewer and less reliable, keep your antennae up for labels and what or who is behind them. Trust more what is described than on how it is labeled, and if that description or demonstration is lacking, move on. It’s a painstaking process.