Name: 【TED-Ed】The case against "good" and "bad" - Marlee Neel
Uploaded: 2014-11-30T12:44:16.000Z
Duration: 4 min 53 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

I submit the following words for immediate and violent execution

to be locked away forever, if you would prefer.

These words I present to you are "good" and "bad."

These words have served as treacherous liars

to produce vague and bland sentences that have crippled the creativity of humanity.

stifle real description and honest communication.

Look at them, just sitting there on this page,

and we must rid ourselves of your influence.

We must replace these two words with the truth,

with phrases that include adequate and sincere adjectives.

I'll offer you "radiant," "stupefying," "awful," "gut-wrenching."

"Good" and "bad" only provide gray vagueness.

We should even use winding similes and metaphors, where appropriate.

We have to do whatever we can and should to make our real sentiments known.

"Good" and "bad" will no longer be our go-to words

that we rely on when we are too afraid or too languid to express our real thoughts.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I implore you to deliver a verdict of guilty

and send these words to their rightful fate.

Now imagine a world without these two words.

Imagine a world where real description is required,

than just a monosyllabic effort to get away with not being honest,

Perhaps my hair looks like a hideous mess of tangles and bald spots.

Yet someone does not want to be honest, and offers the quick fix "good,"

and send me hurling into the evening with a plop of disorganized tresses.

Perhaps my hair looks like an amazing glossy sculpture

I won't take any more of this formless, lifeless description.

I will not take these lies, and neither should you.

could conclude that you have brain cancer or the flu or rabies.

You owe it to yourself and the possible misdiagnosis of your life

"I feel like a herd of wombats has taken up in my chest."

A-ha! There we have it. An accurate description.

Now the doctor has some real evidence to work with in order to assist you.

We have become addicted to the numbness that "good" and "bad" have created.

wherever we are too lazy to allow our minds to communicate

You look good, you sound bad, this tastes good,

repeating this verbal gray, this sloshy mush,

this fuzzy picture that reflects no real truth.

that have been buried in our lexis, waiting to see daylight.

No longer does the weather look good or bad,

the weather looks ominous or exhilarating.

You look like a feathery angel or a morose faun.

Because behind their seemingly unassuming visages

reside two deceitful offerings that smother the truth.

Remove them from our language so that honesty can return to our communication.

if I say to you that you have been a good jury,

you will take the compliment, make your decision and go on about your day.

But if I say to you that you are an honorable jury,

and that I hope your unshakeable determination

will result in finding "good" and "bad" guilty,

you will recognize the ingenuity of this argument