As a lifelong admirer of alliteration who is also beholden to the prize of brevity, I strive for the proper naming of all /most matters. The range of the challenge to do so is vast – as appellations try to suit the single and the plural, the actual and the concept.

As a PhD I further trained to elegant elucidations firmly attached to strident specificity.  It’s good to practice saying exactly what you mean, as the disciplined attempt necessarily includes a strict reckoning of squishy thinking, such as leaving key terms undefined.  Failure to satisfactorily define a key term can easily undermine the integrity and applicability of all surrounding thoughts.

I mention all this as introduction to a wee breakthrough I had this evening in my extended efforts to articulate exactly to whom I refer when I say “they.”  I am confident that I am not alone in having made many an utterance in which “they” were the subjects enacting all manner of egregious works.  I offer a few examples I’m likely to have uttered at some point: “They just don’t care about what really makes life precious and dignified for people with ordinary lives.” & “It’s like they won’t or can’t even take in the wonder of nature and love of the world anymore.”

Who do I mean by “they”?  Such a heavily weighted pronoun cannot be left to languish undefined, clearly.  So I am glad to offer my most current attempt to satisfy internal calls for further accuracy : when I say “they,” I am referring to the “profit-driven poisoners”.

See?  Sweeping yet concise, with a sweet caress of alliteration.  Critical thinking helps to assure that self-accountability not languish.