The True Meaning of the V-Word
Steve Sailer, Taki's Magazine
What do people really mean by the word “vibrant?”
Until the disco era, “vibrant” was used only rarely, mostly in connection with vibrations, literal or metaphorical. A quick search online finds no examples of “vibrant” in the works of George Orwell or John Updike, one in Evelyn Waugh‘s (“that silence vibrant with self-accusation”), and two in Vladimir Nabokov‘s. (Humbert Humbert looks up to a “vibrant sky” through “nervous” rustling branches.)
According to Google’s Ngram, “vibrant” was an occasionally used word from the 1920s into the early 1970s. But then its share of all the words in books roughly quadrupled by the mid-2000s (when a few people finally started to make fun of it).
In 2013, it’s hard to avoid the word. For example, on Monday, President Obama announced, “Immigration makes us stronger—it keeps us vibrant.…”
Lagos (Google Images)
All very well said. I understand that when Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas looks at a place like Lagos, Nigeria, he sees vibrancy bursting out all over. I'm thinking that real estate and advertising uses of the term might be a tad different, since they will use any buzzword that will likely work, but I think of 'vibrant' as either nonwhite or with a healthy sprinkling of whites, a vibrant rainbow that makes whites forget that the white band of the rainbow is fading out as the dark demographic storm clouds gather.
Also like Sailer's point that 'vibrant' has become a placeholder. I think part of the term satisfies something having to do with my particular view of White Man's Disease. For example, if I were a journalist or a novelist, how would I characterize a group of people of another race so that I can be safely polite, complementary or at least inoffensive?
Also like Sailer's point that 'vibrant' has become a placeholder. I think part of the term satisfies something having to do with my particular view of White Man's Disease. For example, if I were a journalist or a novelist, how would I characterize a group of people of another race so that I can be safely polite, complementary or at least inoffensive?
It reminds me of when I read even older, pre-1960's, novels and some white character will be surrounded by nonwhites, for example, on a foreign airliner, filled with, say, Indonesians. I always smile, waiting for the nonwhites to invariably be described as "a handsome people." You have to wonder whether, for example, the Chinese or the Arabs feel the need to describe Europeans as handsome, attractive, sex kittens or some such--or their fellow Chinese or Arabs might suspect them of being bad bad BAD!
Maybe it is time to devise a scientific Scale of Vibrancy. Some mostly nonwhite multicultural multiracial neighborhood, with no doubt lots of hustle and bustle, ample street noise, loud music, spicy fragrant foods, colorful apparel and random gruesome danger, maybe in New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, Austin, LA or San Francisco, might achieve a respectable 4. Skipping up the scale, a vibrant location to die for would be Lagos, a lofty 8. From what I recently read over at American Renascence, parts of Liberia, like those violently overseen/caringly ministered to by General/Preacher Butt Naked, might achieve a breathtaking 9. Whereas Hell proper would remain a solid 10, the gold standard of vibrancy.
Maybe it is time to devise a scientific Scale of Vibrancy. Some mostly nonwhite multicultural multiracial neighborhood, with no doubt lots of hustle and bustle, ample street noise, loud music, spicy fragrant foods, colorful apparel and random gruesome danger, maybe in New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, Austin, LA or San Francisco, might achieve a respectable 4. Skipping up the scale, a vibrant location to die for would be Lagos, a lofty 8. From what I recently read over at American Renascence, parts of Liberia, like those violently overseen/caringly ministered to by General/Preacher Butt Naked, might achieve a breathtaking 9. Whereas Hell proper would remain a solid 10, the gold standard of vibrancy.
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