February 21, 2003

Is 'Justification Talk' Justified?

By CARLIN ROMANO

Oil prices spike when a Persian Gulf war looms, but so do a lot of other things. Long goodbyes between newly deployed soldiers and their spouses. Dissident activities by suddenly politicized poets. Oddball alliances between supporters of fringe antigovernment causes and antiwar soccer parents.

Then there's the "Justification Language-Game." A rhetorical free-for-all that implies all sorts of careful reasoning behind the "talk-first-think-later" polemicizing of our blog-from-the-hip