[A continuation of my last reply...]
Here is a recent situation that occurred to me that showcases
the tendency of humans to carelessly bind illogical terms to
common objects, thereby creating a inverse esoteric of
ubiquitous illogic, in this case, the term: "flash-light".
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Illuminating the illogical:
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A friend and myself where working outside and as the light
began to fade he realized we needed a light source, so he
called out:
"SOMEBODY GET ME A FLASH-LIGHT!"
As i was heading in to grab a "flashlight" i realized the
bombastic insanity of such a term. Why is a handheld light
called a flashlight? It does not flash, in fact, its main
purpose is to provide a consistent light source that is easy
to carry, whereas flashing would be quite annoying!
*And just then that mischievous little inner voice started
whispering in my ear, giving me "ideas", Muahahah!*
So i returned to my friend who was already quite annoyed
with his repair project, and started "flashing" the light on
and off. He quickly turned around and demanded: "What the
hell are you doing?", to which i replied, "You asked for a
flash-light, yes?"
Of course everyone knows that a flash light does not
"flash", so why do we continue to propagate such foolish
terms? Well, for the same reason language designers keep
giving us illogical terms like "function" and "class", but i
digress.
The point is we go around the world falsely believing we have
a strong grasp of the simple things, when in fact, a whole
world of illogic infects our understanding of even the most
basic aspects of our lives.
Of course, I'm anxiously await my friend to ask for a "drop
light" -- oh boy, that will be fun! >:^)
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