Category: metonymy of Olympia (Page 4 of 5)

Metonmy:

Olympia to Seattle: Drop Dead

More metonmy:

This week’s dustup between Seattle and Olympia over how to spend $341 million in federal stimulus money…

The problem with this specific metonymic device is that is blurs out the reality of the situation. It makes the state legislature, an organization of locally elected (and proportionate to population) representatives into “Olympia,” an other.

Its a very short line of logic from othering state government to a Gov. Bobby Jindal-type speech where government can never solve any problems and wrecks everything it touches.

It would be much different to say: “Our State Legislature to Seattle: Drop Dead” or “this week’s dustup between Seattle and the state legislature…”

An aside: I understand metonymy, probably more than most people should. See my somewhat depressingly long archive on this particular topic, please. I understand the purpose of using a specific term for a broad topic, like “press” for the “news media,” especially in a time when there are fewer and fewer “presses” in the “news media.”

But, the use of Olympia for “state government” or “state legislature” is a hugely inaccurate and damaging metonymy, because it misstates the nature of our government. Because we elect our representatives from proportional districts, most of the people who serve in the state legislature come from the urban Puget Sound (not unlike the makeup of the Senate Transportation Committee), so its also the urban Puget Sound telling Seattle to “drop dead.”

Back to the main point: I don’t have a problem with language short cuts. I have a problem with language short cuts that are dangerous.

And, especially when my town is made the label for the scapegoat. At least Josh Feit stop saying “Oly.”

Here’s an entire post from Nafzblog that had been taken down (could be up again by now, who the heck knows?):

Legislatures and congresses are full of conspiracies. Democrats conspire to raise taxes. Republicans conspire to cut social programs. Committee chairs conspire to take credit for things committee members do and conspire to kill their bills. Leadership conspires to control committee chairs and to kill divergent members’ bills in the rules committee. Staff people conspire to leave other staff people out of the loop. Legislative leaders conspire to hold secrets from other members to achieve conspiratorial purposes.

Behind all these conspiracies is a deeply held view that somebody must be in charge and is running the place. Their friends and allies are in the loop and everyone else is left out.

Unfortunately, such command and control management is rare. For better or worse, legislative bodies are highly decentralized. Individual legislators are elected from areas across the state who have different interests, populations, races and industries.

Overlay the fact that a part time legislator has to work at high speed, around the clock to finish the public’s business in a 105 day session.

In the State House, 23 committee chairs run committees and focus on specific areas and aren’t always able to focus on the big picture. Leadership struggles to link the views of all the committees together with all the interests of legislators from varied districts who often have contradictory interests. They must then coordinate their actions with another house, the Senate, and the Governor all who are run by different people with different points of view.

I hope you are getting the picture. In general, for most of the legislative session, legislators are working in the fog. As they labor through the process of studying bills and talking to constituents, they only can barely see the outlines of what is happening in other committees with other bills or with other staff people. Unable to get a clear picture, many of us then imagine conspiracies.

The fact of the matter is Democracy is messy and sometimes unclear. As Winston Churchill said, “Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those others that have been tried.”

Churchill, ever the political philosopher, then said “The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.” Which is nice to know, but isn’t my point.

1. With the “Fog of Lawmaking” theory and the divergent views from across the state, it makes sense why writers, bloggers, observers and reporters would lean so heavily on “Olympia” as a metonymic device for “state government.”

2. “Fog of Lawmaking” would actually make a great blog. Take three or four separate policy issues and try to shine a light on them throughout the session. Someone like Nafziger could do it, if he could ever keep all of his posts on his blog (smirk).

3. 105 days isn’t enough time to really govern. The Washington legislature should be closer to full time with closer to fully paid members. Our state is too big to depend on a part time legislature.

One more thing about this, if you’re unfamiliar or unclear as to my pet peeve about people saying “Olympia” when they mean “Washington State government,” don’t worry, almost everyone is.

But, in regards to this, I’d just like to ask this:

What is Olympia thinking trying to tell Olympia what to do?

Randy Neatherlin’s new newspaper insert:

Randy says that Olympia is to blame. Well, not literally “Olympia,” as in the city I live in, but rather the place as it represents some other out there for citizens in the 35th LD.

Yes, I understand the point of metonymy: the press is not literally a printing press, but the news media in general.

But, in the case of using smaller city state capitols to signify “state government” is wrong. It lets voters off the hook for the decisions they make, who they decide to sent to Olympia during the legislative session to represent them. It isn’t Olympia’s fault, its your fault.

In this way, even the Don’t Let Seattle Steal This Election is more accurate than blaming your troubles on Olympia, because it is literally urban King County voters trumping rural conservative voters.

KUOW’s weekday will cover this topic tomorrow:

The Olympia Culture

You’ve undoubtedly heard gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi saying that he’s wants to change the culture of Olympia. What is that culture? Does it need changing? If there is corruption, what kind? We take a look at the culture of our state capitol. What is true? What isn’t?

There’s a problem in the way that we talk about state government, because its not the culture of Olympia that’s the problem, its the culture every legislative district that elects representatives to the state legislature.

Arg:

How Olympia’s Solution to Climate Change Will Affect You and Your Pocketbook

Ok, just to get this straight, Olympia (as I know it) is doing something about climate change, but this isn’t what Ted Dahlstrom is talking about.

He’s talking about “the government of the State of Washington” and calling it “Olympia.” I know this is a device called metonymy, but I think is an incorrect metonymy and a particularly dangerous one to our democratic government.

The purpose of metonymy is to take something large (like state government or the collected newspapers, radio and television stations) and call them something simple (like Olympia or “the press”). In the case of Washington State government and Olympia, I think this is turning the state government into a distant other, something that we feel no connection to.

Of course, I do feel a connection to Olympia, and am turned off by the metonmonic use of Olympia.

But, according to those in Olympia, it isn’t anywhere near enough.

…

Those in Olympia have taken it upon themselves to be one of only six states to pass legislation dealing with climate change.

…

Even if that is true, the point remains that the legislation does have a cost, and that cost would be passed directly to the consumer. The same can be said for Olympia’s climate change legislation.

But, it isn’t “those in Olympia” and it isn’t “Olympia’s” anything. Legislators are elected from communities all over Washington State. While they may work in Olympia from time to time, they still come from places not near Olympia.

Calling the state legislator down the road from you as being “from Olympia” or part of “Olympia” makes him a distant other that has little connection to you or your community. Which isn’t true.

I’ve been quiet throughout most of the legislative session about the cruel metonymy of Olympia.

While I’ll probably never be able to stop reporters, bloggers, pundits and conservative politicians from using the term “Olympia” to signify “state government” or rather “everything I hate about state government,” Feit of the Stranger has gone too far.

In recent posts on Slog, Feit has started to use the shortened “Oly” when talking about state capital campus goings-ons:

Oly Update: Take Heart Carless in Seattle
Oly Action
Oly Inaction

I’m sure you’d say: sure, Feit writes for the Stranger, so it could be assumed that he’d use the hipper, shorter “Oly” when writing about state politics.

Hell no!

Olympia is not Oly.

Olympia is the capital of the state of Washington, identifiable on maps in classrooms and travel lodges nationwide. It is a city that every elementary school kid memorizes (do they still do that?) as a state capital of a state near the end of the list of states. It was the first state capital and through a hard fight with Yakima and Ellensburg, stayed the state capital. Now we have fancy greek type buildings on a hill. It is home to state agencies, even the ones that are in Tacoma. And, for a couple months or so every winter, we’re home to folks like Josh Feit, though we actually try hard to ignore them.

Oly is a hometown, its where a lot of us are from. Though, tons of us are not from here (I’m from here, btw), the transplants will defend Oly with the fervor of a converted Catholic. Oly’s connection to Olympia is that we have some activists and many of us feed at the public trough. But, Oly as Oly has more to do with Evergreen, Lakefair, the house that Kurt Cobain lived in, and the Spaghetti Bowl. And the wood bat tournament. Oly is Oly in relation to Tumwater (Scumwater) and Lacey Sucks.

While I’d rather people use terms like “state government” or “the state legislature” when they’d rather be lazy and say “Olympia,” using the term “Oly” is entirely unacceptable. Please stop.

Jim, this one goes out to you and all the debate nerds in the room.

I was already inspired to follow up this post when I read DonWard’s post from this morning:

Who’s conservative in Olympia?

But, then Andrew posts this:

Olympia’s Democrats have lost their way

When I read Don’s headline, I thought the was talking about our discussion over at Olyblog parsing the difference between the really liberal neighborhoods in Olympia and the neighborhoods that only vote Democratic 70 percent of the time (you know, the conservative ones).

But, no Don was talking about conservatives in the state legislature. Conservatives who don’t come from Olympia, but rather to it.

And, of course Andrew wasn’t talking about certain Thurston County living Democrats going off the beaten path, but rather legislators:

Olympia failed the people of Washington State.

You can’t imagine the emotional spasms I experience when I read sentences like that. I know it sounds juvenile when I say it, but Olympia didn’t fail anyone!

Olympia was sitting there innocently drinking coffee while a bunch of folks from out of town came by (except three or maybe four) and passed a couple of laws.

They’re using Olympia as a metonymy for the broader statewide political landscape, but specifically the state legislature. As I learned a few days ago, from the above mentioned nerd-king, metonymy is “is the use of a word for a concept with which the original concept behind this word is associated.”

Like “press,” which is literally a way to print something, also means the news media, Olympia has become a lazy-ass crutch for people when they could be saying something else.

No one else cares, but I’ll care.

Repeat after me:

The state legislature is not Olympia.

The state government is not Olympia.