Recent reports about two federally funded projects may leave you speechless. Literally.
The first: a $125,000 study funded by the National Science Foundation to determine if various adjectives are sexist or racist.
Example? The word “good.”
We’re not kidding. “In a masculine work domain . . . ‘good’ for a woman may mean something objectively less good than ‘good’ for a man,” says the tax-funded foundation.
Got that? (If so, you may be the only one.)
Even if there is something to this gibberish, it’s not clear why hardworking US taxpayers should have to pay to have it “studied.”
More worrisome: A whole new part of the English language may soon become verboten based on studies like this. At this rate, will Americans have any words not banned by the PC left?
Of course, that wouldn’t matter to beneficiaries of the second federally funded project: a rendition of “Hamlet” by a Virginia theater company that’s getting $95,700, courtesy of the National Endowment for the Arts and the Virginia Commission for the Arts.
Here’s the rub: This version of the Shakespeare classic is completely silent.
That’s right. “Hamlet . . . The Rest Is Silence” contains no dialogue at all. Not a hint of the Bard’s beautiful soliloquies or clever word-play. Instead, audience members can expect only gestures, grunts and dance.
Doth someone here miss the point?
Sure, we’re for free speech — or in this case, free grunts. But if this adaptation is so worthwhile, couldn’t it have found a private backer?
Fact is, productions like this and the NSF study push the envelope beyond any sense of logic or good judgment. They serve to validate notions that public funding of the arts and sciences is a waste of taxpayer money.
And pretty soon, Americans won’t even have the words to express their disgust.
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