The world through the 'ism' prism

The Merriam-Webster dictionary's word of the year has as much resonance as the Oxford Dictionaries' 2015 choice of the 'face with tears of joy' emoji, and it is far more succinct: ism. Okay, it's not a word in itself per se, but given the number of appearances those three letters make in public discourse these days — tagged onto other syllables, of course — ism definitely deserves its crown. Indeed, the world has reverberated with isms this year, from terrorism and racism to feminism and healthism — the latter now dubbed the Angelina Jolie Syndrome. India too had its own complement of isms bandied about and hotly debated this year, from federalism, communalism and secularism, to obstructionism, patriotism, nationalism and majoritarianism. That the dictionary has selected its 'winner' based on its internet searches in the US mirroring key events there at least bespeaks popular interest in the ideas and practices behind the isms.

John Lennon had his own take on rampant three-letterism back in 1969 by way of the song that began with, "Ev'rybody's talking about/ Bagism, Shagism, Dragism, Madism, Ragism, Tagism/ This-ism, that-ism, ism, ism, ism,/ All we are saying is give peace a chance.…" The isms exercising the world at present may be quite different, but the plea in that last line has an ominous contemporaneity.