Do words matter? Or should we only concern ourselves with what the words signify?
Nobody likes to waste their time "arguing over words" ... but there are times when our attitudes about a word can reveal to us a quirk in our own thinking. Earlier this year, I asked visionary graphic artist Vince Larue to help me illustrate a bizarre conversation that I found myself having over and over as I told people about my new project, Pacifism21. Thanks to Vince for capturing a surreal situation in a drawing. Why do so many people hate the word "pacifism"? What does this common feeling e tell us about ourselves, about our presumptions, about our limitations? And will we ever manage to rescue the word? If we can, the word may help to rescue us. — Marc Eliot Stein