[lit-ideas] Re: Tautology, Patent & Other

  • From: "Mike Geary" <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2004 12:36:39 -0500

> >      War  is war.
> >      Women are women.
>
> I would  agree that these are tautologies - if there is such a thing as a
> tautology,  which there seems to be.


I've said it before and I'll say it again because some people don't seem to
be paying attention.  "War is war."  and "Women are women" are NOT
tautologies. "War is war" is a expression predicating something about war.
"War is war" means cruelty and brutality and mercilessness are to be
expected.  It says that whatever happens is OK because all ethics are out
the window once war begins.  That is not a tautology.  Only the most
literal-minded, anal-retentive, analytical, biblical-inerrantcistic person
would call "war is war" a tautology.  Likewise for "women are women".
That's an expression popular with men who shrink before the complex
emotional lives of women and seek shelter in idiocy.  "Women are women"
means "I don't know what the hell she wants."  Not a tautology.

Hoping to have settled this once and for all,
Mike Geary
Midtown.
Some say: Midtown is Memphis.
I say Midtown is Midtown.  Memphis is Memphis.
No tautologies there either.

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