Why the posthaste to use “post”? A post-truth world, post-gender society, postliberal order. I recently read of a post-prestige TV era. Since “Mister Ed,” has it ever been prestigious? Or postmodernism. Shouldn’t modernism always be current? That’s as illogical as post-apocalyptic. But my favorite post is post-rationalists—known on Twitter as “postrats”—kind of a beyond-truth troop. Irrational but fitting.
Don’t get me started about “late” as in late-stage capitalism. How many times have you heard pretentious poseur know-it-alls talking to their post-pierced barista and fellow pre-employed chai latte sipping layabouts using daddy’s credit card discussing how capitalism isn’t simply over but “so over”?
The German economist Werner Sombart is said to have been the first to print the term late-stage capitalism, around the turn of the century—the 20th century, that is. More than 120 years on, can it get any later? Better late than post, I guess. Late-stage capitalism means folks are fed up with having to work hard and instead are looking for handouts. Complain about capitalism all you want, but folks in Russia, Venezuela and Seattle, the short-lived home of the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, sure know what late-stage socialism looks like.
It works both ways. A doctor looking at my A1C blood-test readings told me I was pre-diabetic and to give up bread. How “pre”? Because I’m also pre-death. In Silicon Valley, most software is pre-release, even though it’s been released. Renamed “beta” to make it sound cool, these are test versions of the future. ChatGPT was released with many flaws—let users find all the mistakes.
“Uber” was a cool preemie, as in uber-athlete, Übermensch, until canceled ride pickups ruined it. The umlaut version of über is a nice touch. And be warned, adding “super” in front of any word can be super-annoying.
Here’s another trick. Add “neo” before almost any “ism” and it makes it sound über-hip, super-now.
