Looking beneath the labels

What’s in a word? Think tanks have been very successful in directing our thoughts to the way they want us to act. Lakoff’s book, Don’t Think of an Elephant, suggests that the words we use have consequences. Words often become popular and may be used to our detriment.

For example, “tax burden” brings to mind something very unpleasant, maybe unfair. Yet, we all need to pay for the benefit of government provisions, such as roads, schools, libraries and disaster relief. Every American benefits from roads, for example.

For years, the use of “oil spill” has been irritating me. What comes to mind wit...