Subjective Morality

Below is a list, in alphabetical order, of some of the common and not-so-common acronyms in David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest.

General Acronyms

A.C.D.C. = American Council of Disseminators of Cable

A.F.R = Les Assassins des Fauteuils Roulents (Wheelchair Assassins.)

ACOA = Adult Children of Alcoholics

ACOG = Adult Children of Gamblers

ACONA = Adult Children of Narcotics Addicts

ALGOL = ALGOrithmic Language

ATHSCME = It’s not clear what it stands for. It’s a company that makes really big fans.

B.S. = Before Subsidization (Before the subsidization of time, wherein companies purchased the rights to name a year after a product, i.e. Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment, Year of Glad.)

B.S.S. = Bureau des Services sans Specificite (The Québécois acronym for O.U.S.)

C.T. = Charles Tavis (Hal’s uncle and the headmaster of ETA after Hal’s father kills himself with a microwave oven.)

C.U.S.P. = Clean U.S. Party (The party of President Gentle.)

E.T.A. = Enfield Tennis Academy

E.W.D. = Empire Waste Displacement

HmH = Headmaster’s House

M.G.M. = Militant Grammarians of Massachusetts

M.O. = Modus Operandi

O.N.A.N. = Organization of North American Nations (The new country formed by the combination of the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.)

O.N.A.N.C.A.A. = Organization of North American Nations Collegiate Athletics Association

O.N.A.N.T.A. = Organization of North American Nations Tennis Association

O.U.S. = Office of Unspecified Services

P.A.C. = Political Action Committee

P.G.O.A.T. = Prettiest Girl Of All Time (A.k.a. Joelle v. Dyne.)

S.A.S. = Substance Abuse Services

SOP = Standard Operating Procedure

TP = Teleputer

U.H.I.D. = Union of the Hideously and Improbably Deformed (A group that Joelle joins after her face is marred by her own mother, who accidentally throws acid in her face while trying to mar herself.)

U.S.D.D. = United States Department of Defense

U.S.T.A. = United States Tennis Association

V.D. = Victory by Default

WASP = White Anglo-Saxon Protestant

W.H.I.N.E.R.S. = Wounded, Hurting, Inadequately Nurtured but Ever-Recovering Survivors

Y.D.A.U. = Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment

Eschaton Acronyms

AMNAT = American Nations

CONFORCON = Conventional-Force Concentration

INDDIR = Infliction of Death, Destruction, and Incapacitation of Response

INDPAK = India + Pakistan

IRLIBSYR = Iran + Libia + Syria

LIBSYR = Libia + Syria

MAMA = Major Metro Area

REDCHI = Red China

S.A.C. = Strategic Air Command

SACPOP = Strikes Against Civilian Populations

SOUTHAF = South Africa

SPASEX = Spasm Exchanges

SUFDDIR = Suffering of Death Destruction, and Incapacitation of Response

SSTRACS = Sites of Strategic Command