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Architects
tend to shrug about the wholesale use of the "A" word
in all the worst places. Sometimes it can cause a chuckle (i.e.
L'Oreal's "lash
architect"). But I'm worried that we might start feeling
subconsciously guilty (or more guilty) about the state of the world
when we read the news. I have been noticing that when journalists
are wanting to describe someone who has dreamt up something, well,
BAD, they call upon the A word. Check these examples found in the
Sydney Morning Herald in the month of March 2003.
- Invasion architect in hot water.
- It was roundly condemned as a lemon and John
Singleton - architect of the shocker - took the ad off
air.
- He is believed to be al-Qaeda's operational
commander and the architect of the September 11 terror
attacks in the US that killed more than 3,000 people.
- Mohammed is believed to have been the architect
of the September
11 attacks.
- Osama bin Laden, the architect of the
September 11 attack.
- Ali Hassan Majid, a cousin of Saddam, who is
believed to be the architect of a 1988 gas attack against
northern Kurds
- Mr. Sharon, an architect of the settlement
movement...
Enough to make you want to give yourself up to
the International Criminal Court. Out of around 34 instances of
the word found during the month in the SMH, the breakdown into different
types of "architect" is as follows
designer of buildings or environments: 17
designer of software: 5
designer of terrorist incidents: 4
designer of government or business policy: 4
designer of sporting codes and rules: 3
designer of political or military strategies: 2
Well at least us real architects get half
of the occurrences, even though they might be on the back pages.
But kids growing up in Sydney must be a bit confused. If Osama,
Atta, Ali, and Sharon are architects, is this really a profession
to aspire to?
No such confusion in Auckland it would seem. In
the same month, the word 'architect' turned up a paltry 13 times
according to Mr Google. But ALL these instances were referring to
designers of buildings! They must use other words to describe evil
guys over there...
Hey journos check these nice alternatives out
and leave us alone (from an ancient Rogets):
producer, originator, inventor, author, founder, generator,
mover, grower, raiser, introducer, deviser, constructor, begetter,
creator; maker, prime mover.
In general, the dictionaries of the english language
seem to agree that 'architect' has two meanings. One refers specifically
to us impoverished creators of buildings and environments, The other
is far more general, talking of people who "make plans"
or somesuch. There seems to be a third more focussed meaning edging
its way in, which might go something like this: "architect
(3) n. creator of grand and evil projects with the potential
to end the world and cause untold suffering".
I'm a bit worried with this sort of publicity
we might start getting a bad name for ourselves...
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What's
in a word