“We..”

In more often occasions than I dare admit in daily life, I’ve caught myself inadvertently referring to myself in plural tense in the last 2-3 years. As in stating: “Our responsibilities…” or “We felt it would be…” when actually talking about my own activities. Until recently I did not know the source of this newly developed habit, but I’ve noticed that politicians exhibit this schizophrenic lingualism at every chance they get.

In politics it is done to either divert or share blame or responsibility for activities or statements. When referring to one self in more than one person, one makes the impression that one has backing for the statement from more than one person. linguistically it is both a defense and attack mechanism. I decided to do some research as to why I do the same thing at times.

It turns out that our ego is at times too big for “I” thus we use we.

When we looked up those Wiki entries we couldn’t help but laugh.

It was said that United States Navy Admiral Hyman G. Rickover told a subordinate that used the royal we: “Three groups are permitted that usage: pregnant women, royalty, and schizophrenics. Which one are you?”; similarly, Mark Twain extended this privilege to “people with tapeworms”.

meh….we’ll be off to do some coding now…