Congratulation?

One of the most pervasive errors in English here is the use of the word congratulations - it keeps being used as congratulation on cakes, cards and in conversation.

This started me thinking, why do we, in the English world, offer each other either congratulations or condolences, plural? Why not a single congratulation or condolence? We can offer words of congratulation and words of condolence, but then the plural rests in the use of words. Does it perhaps rest in the fact, that, to be grammatically correct, we need to append a or the, since these words are, after all, nouns?

So, if I'm not that happy about your achievement, can I offer you a congratulation?

Liberty and responsibility

I am reading a very interesting book at the moment, dealing with the rise of liberty as a concept in western society.

I am purely at the initial stages of the book, and so have not yet formed an opinion as to how accurate the thesis is, but it started me thinking about the concept of liberty, and how, to some extent, the idea of responsibility had been abrogated with respect to this concept.

Let's talk about liberty. The idea of freedom is intoxicating - being free to live life the way you want to, not having to answer to anyone, free to think and say and do what you want. Most of us consider ourselves free - we live life freely and without being a slave to anyone. Yet, if you really think about it, what does our freedom consist of?

If we broke a law, we'd be imprisoned. If we gave in to our baser impulses (and we all have them!), we'd be rapists, murderers, thieves etc. We do not live exactly the way we want to - we conform to the norms of the society we live in. In that sense we are slaves, slaves to the idea of civil behaviour.

However, so ingrained has become the idea of freedom of speech that people can stand in the streets calling for Obama to be assassinated! Or publish blogs calling for abortionists to be strung from lampposts, blacks to be castrated etc.

Which brings me to responsibility. Unless we temper freedom with responsibility, where we consider the consequences of our deeds and are prepared to bear those consequences, we cannot really have a free society. And, moreover, that responsibility should not be 'I killed him but I can live with it' kind of responsibility, it should be the kind that asks what effect your actions will have on those around you, on the community and on the world.