Pathetic

This is a very interesting word and its usage over time speaks volumes about our language, those who use the word and our society in general. The word comes to us from the Greek pathos, a well known concept in drama. Pathetic in contemporary English usage has two diametrically opposed meanings. From Wiktionary:

1 Arousing pity, sympathy or compassion.

The old man’s pathetic pleas for forgiveness stirred the young man’s heart.

2 Arousing scornful pity or contempt, often due to miserable inadequacy.

You can't even run two miles? That’s pathetic.

You're almost 26 years old and you still can't hold a real job? That's pathetic.

So the word has two meanings, the first almost forgotten except among scholars. The second with the converse meaning, annoyingly overused among teens half a generation ago and still quite popular. How is it possible for a word to suddenly turn into its opposite? I am very curious to know when the second definition started to be used, I imagine it was sometime in the twentieth century, not before. The development of the word pathetic mirrors that of bad, another word that suddenly has inverted its previous meaning, at least if you believe Michael Jackson.

What does all this say about our post-modern society? Is failure and suffering nowadays the result of conscious choices, leaving no room for real pity? Has the world become an essentially just and comfortable place without real victims? Is it so important to seem successful that any hint of weakness is an unsightly social more and has our language consequently been amended? Have we lost our sense of community and our solidarity for those less fortunate than ourselves?

I don’t know the answer to these questions but I intuitively see this small change in our language as a bad sign that our society is not developing in a healthy manner. Our increasing wealth is leading to the instant gratification of every desire and changing our bodies in ways unmatched in history. The free flow of information is leading to the abolition of mystery and the complete understanding of every cause for every effect. Neither we as individuals nor our culture is adapted to these new circumstances of existence. I see rough times ahead.