Bruce Thornton referenced...
"Mother Nature is a "euphemism." A euphemism is a word or phrase that is considered inoffensive or mild that's been
substituted for a word or phrase that may offend or suggest something unpleasant. So we sometimes say "He passed away"
rather than "He died." Euphemisms are obviously not all bad. On the other hand, euphemisms are forms of what Bruce S. Thornton
in his book, Plagues of the Mind (1999), calls "linguistic cosmetics." Euphemisms do not alter reality; they only mask. In many uses, they are lies."
— Dr. Rex M. Rogers, "Mother Nature"
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From "Learning at UNLV? You bet!"
By Ken Ward, columnist, Las Vegas Review-Journal
...UNLV is hardly alone in its crass commercialism. Bruce S. Thornton, author of Plagues of the Mind: The New Epidemic of False Knowledge, says, "The sheer abundance of money and proliferation of opportunities for grabbing it transformed universities into just another venue for opportunism and self-aggrandizement.
"The 'absent-minded professor' is increasingly replaced by the lupine educrat, who thinks not in terms of the impractical development of the individual student's critical consciousness and cultural literacy, but in terms of power, prestige, institutional expansion and money. Along with the new class of education administrators, faculty have been just as aggressive in nosing up to the trough. Many have become academic capitalists."
Hence, we get UNLV's quirky school of "consciousness studies," amply endowed by a local family. But that's small potatoes. Casinos reign supreme.
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Last Updated: 17 Nov 2001
