I never realized that etymology could be cited to support a political position. This was in reply to those who charge that mistakes have been made in the conduct of the Iraq war:

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Mistakes are made in every war; that's a reason the word "snafu" began as a military acronym whose meaning we can't reprint in a family newspaper.

The German philosopher, Martin Heidegger, sort of created a style of argumentum ad etymologicum in his later works. For example, his connection of thinking and thing (cf. Icelandic the Allthing qua gathering); and his article on building, dwelling, and thinking (Bauen Wohnen Denken). This quality of his work was taken over into de(con)struction by Derrida in France (cf. Glas).

Yes, Heidegger and phenomenology are often referred to in nursing. I have always thought the vocabulary used when discussing phenomenology is obscure. In the above link, for example, note the word "everydayness." I have posted about Parse's Human Becoming theory before (click "Human Becoming Theory" on the left). Besides other verbiage, note the use of the word "languaging."

There is something to be said for simplicity in language!

Quote "...The human becoming theory posits quality of life from each person's own perspective as the goal of nursing practice...." and

"...Cocreating rhythmical patterns of relating is living the paradoxical unity of revealing-concealing and enabling-limiting while connecting-separating..." or even

"...Structuring meaning multidimensionally is cocreating reality through the languaging of valuing and imaging..."

I see that bullshit isn't confined to fields in the USA; as in the UK it is to be found in turgid and arcane publications as well.

Much of Heidegger doesn't sound as stilted in German as it does in English translation. As for followers and their language, many pick up the rhetorical style with little of the content, if any. As with many disciplines, e.g., linguistics, medicine, information technology, the specialized vocabulary / jargon usually sounds like pure, unmeaning noise to the outsider. In my estimation, it very rarely is. When I turn and tell a colleague in a meeting that something is bloatware or that my bogometer is hitting red, many outside the field will have no idea what I'm talking about, but a clear and precise message has been communicated. That being said, I've read a bit of Heidegger and found some bits of itnerest in his texts: some I've agreed with, and some I haven't. I've also ready poorly written, confused writing in philosophy, linguistics, and IT. Again, in my experience, poor writing does not stem from the subject matter but from poor writers. It's very rarely that I read something that is not only devoid of any meaning, but was intentionally written that way. But, then, maybe I pick my readings with more care ...

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As with many disciplines, e.g., linguistics, medicine, information technology, the specialized vocabulary / jargon usually sounds like pure, unmeaning noise to the outsider.

This is very true - but I don't think this piece was jargon. It's about perfectly straightforward concepts that have been deliberately written in a pompous and pseudo-intellectual fashion, using language that is has been chosen to be difficult to understand.

It would be very easy to turn it into simple English - but that would defeat the writer's objective of trying to appear more clever than his readers.

Bullshit, as I said!

Richard, you are entitled to your opinion (as am I), but I still say that many bad writers do not write that way willfully.

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but I still say that many bad writers do not write that way willfully.

I am sure you're right. Many of them write badly through ignorance. I doubt this was the case in the example given, though.

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Many of them write badly through ignorance. I doubt this was the case in the example given, though.

One of the uses of language is to lie. Those who accept the lie will defend the lie as truth. Often that defense is a defense of authority. Those who do not will start thinking about tales like the Emporer's New Clothes and wonder how gullible people can be.