[OT] Customers (was Re: [VIC] 2006 Commonwealth Games & Hitachis)

[p.edwards@its.unimelb.edu.au (Paul Edwards)]

In article <8F9B9BDEDgunzelT333@139.130.239.94>, usenet.spam@gunzel.net
(Michael Kurkowski) wrote:

> >> Hitachi sets certainly unpopular for one of my customers
> 
> >Hell, I remember when such people were known as "passengers".
> 
> A customer is merely a term to describe a passenger who pays. Customer also 
> sounds more friendly (Requirement in this customer service sensitive 
> world).

So we've moved from the terms "passenger" and "fare evader" to,
respectively, "customer" and "passenger" then, eh?

I saw a doctor's surgery recently which had a sign "Customers please report
to reception upon arrival". We've got this remarkably rich language, and
there seems to be this push to dumb it down to a few key phrases like
customer or that absolute abomination of PC, partner. [1]

The whole thing's not dissimilar to Orwell's Newspeak, really.

> MK

Paul

[1] I play bridge or tennis with a partner, I go into business with a
partner, I have a relationship with my girlfriend, wife, de facto (or even
spouse)[2]. This realization came to me at a party about a year ago, where
I met this fellow, and we were talking about his business, when this woman
came up and she was introduced to me as "his partner". Given the context of
the discussion was his business, it was not clear whether he was talking
business partner, or girlfriend. As it happened, it was business partner,
as this couple were quite free of the bigotry that PC so often legitimizes.

[2] Having said this, I am quite comfortable with the term "partner" for
people involved in a same sex relationship. Ah, the vagaries of human
nature...

PE