Yes, Doug, I was putting you on. We all know what the famous "n" word is. It's the only world left now in the English language that white people are so terrified of that they can't even speak it aloud or even print it out fully EVEN when they're explaining to other white people how bad it is...!

I find that kind of intriguing, that level of fear, because it's not a behaviour much due to respect, it's mainly due to abject fear. There were some great standup humorists back in the 70's who know how to confront this kind of thing directly and show how ultimately silly it is for us all to live in fear and trembling of a word...any word. They did this by using the various most dreadful words of the day (including the N word, the F word, etc) in such a ridiculously repetitive and obviously satirical fashion as to completely demystify the word and reduce its emotional impact down to zilch. There's a way of doing that, but it takes courage and finesse, combined with a measure of real compassion and understanding.

Such courage has become rarer of late. So have the finesse, compassion, and understanding. Fear rules the dialogue now.

People are content now to only look at the cover of the book (as with the recent issue of the New Yorker), and skip reading the contents altogether. They form a snap judgement on the cover alone, because it spares them exerting mental effort. This is not so good.