By that definition, I suppose you could argue that everything I do or say or own is "tactical." Therefore the original intent of this post is moot, as I intended to make fun of this.
tac·ti·cal
/ˈtæktɪkəl/[tak-ti-kuhl] –adjective
Of or pertaining to a maneuver or plan of action designed as an expedient toward gaining a desired end or temporary advantage.
Nah. Can't buy it. I'm sorry, even if you actually belong to LA SWAT, a bright red polo shirt cannot in any sane universe be termed "tactical." Not if the word has any meaning.
I remember laughing out loud the first time I saw a pistol - Don't remember exactly but I think it was an HK - with a green slide that said "tactical" right there in bold black lettering as if to imply that every other pistol ever made just wasn't "tactical" enough. I said to a friend at the time, "that is the beginning of the end for that word." Now we've got tactical pants (used to be cargo pants or, if camouflaged, "cammies") tactical knives (which are any arguably cool-looking folder) tactical sights, belts, fanny packs, sunglasses ... you name it. To CRKT's everlasting credit, the company does NOT call this a "tactical spork" - but innumerable commenters do. Even though it doesn't even come in titanium.
Seriously. We bitch about the bastardization of the language, then let a perfectly good word get shanghaied to sell stuff?
3 comments:
Jeff Cooper used to poke fun at "tactical" all the time, so you're in the best of company.
It's all part of the militarization process, if you ask me. "Tactical" everything is mostly just amusing in the eye-rolling sense, but my real pet peeve is the disgusting term "operator". As best I can tell, we vigorously train our enforcement thugs to push out any remaining vestige of their humanity in the relentless pursuit of fawning and immediate compliance (instead of, oh, say, peace, or even "justice" defined under something rationally comprehensible as "law"). After all, to retain one's humanity when enforcing compliance is possibly to realize that the whole enterprise has become a sick, twisted gag against the basic dignity of all other human beings, and that just doesn't "git 'r' done". My word, we can't stomach the thought of the peasantry getting uppity, now can we?
And so, to fully achieve the aim of producing not thinking human beings but rather grotesque and unconvincing impersonators of same, we even distort the language, to call our enforcement thugs what they really have become...things, mere tools to be manipulated by an "Onlier" Only One higher in the food chain. An "operator" thus is nothing but a trained manipulator of military weaponry...an object not even worthy of recognizing as a sapient being unto itself, but an extended tool of a bureaucrat...
...a drone.
(So: the term may damn well be accurate, but it still pisses me off.)
I have two items I desperately want to bring to market:
1) Soulder tabs, along the lines of "Airborne", "Ranger", or "Special Forces", that read "Black Ops".
2) "Raid"-style tees and windbreakers that read "UNDERCOVER",(instead of "POLICE", "FBI", "ATF", or "DEA".)
Tam,
How about a jacket with:
Jacket; 01 each, tactical, undercover, color black ?
{shrug}
gooch
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