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Attack of the Corporate Weasel Words
theodp writes "Does it bother you that churches have a Mission Statement touting their Core Values? That even the CIA has a Vision? In his book Death Sentences: How Clichés, Weasel Words and Management-Speak are Strangling Public Language and in this Newsweek interview, Australian author Don Watson argues it's time to protest the mind-numbing business jargon that infests our schools, churches and political speech. Examples that people have sent to him can be found on Watson's website."
Didn't Orwell write this long ago:
http://www.resort.com/~prime8/Orwell/patee.html
That sounds more like a crash to me -- and not all crashes are accidental.
We can't exactly use the word collision, as not all collisions cause damage (purely elastic or purely inelastic collisions will transfer energy without permenant deformation of the bodies involved)
I'm not sure if there are times when the word 'crash' denotes a situation that isn't a 'damaging energy exchange', but it seems better than 'accident', which has more to do with something not having been done intentionally, and very little to do with damage or energy exchange. (the context of its use may suggest that, but you haven't given its context).
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
There is a way to actually have fun with these nonsense terms:i tbingo/
http://www.perkigoth.com/home/kermit/stuff/bullsh
I tried this myself in business seminars, definitly works! It's better to have humorous people around, though.
Here is but one example of what Lucius was complaining about.
It's all well and good, as we geeks love to feel superior to management-sorts and snicker at them at every available opportunity.
However, this man comes across as something of a luddite. Much of his opposition to certain phrases is decidedly ludden.
What's wrong with "email" as a noun? "E-mail Message" is long and pointless, when Huffman coding suggest it can be shortened to "E-mail" or just "Mail".
In addition to that opposition, he seems to have a limited grasp of Idiom, Synecdoche, Zeugma and other long-established English literary traditions.
What's wrong with calling an iPod "sexy"? How can one meaningfully be opposed to "poor customer service"? "Reject"? "Requeue"?
He sounds like a lunatic complaining at any kind of neologism or idiom he didn't have a hand in. Like people who complain about the change in the meaning of the words "gay" and "pussy".
I'm tempted to say "grow up!" at him.
Also, a Detention Centre isn't a prison. "Ramp up" is an idiom. It doesn't simply mean "to increase". It means to start something small, and the increase gradually to full capacity. Perhaps we should stay that instead?
"To drill down" is a well-established idiom. What's the problem?
It's bonkers. This man seems to have an absurd overreaction to many perfectly innocuous words and phrases. Whether born out of Luddism or some paranoid objection to all neologisms isn't clear, but I'd suggest that this man be ignored as a quack.
Good example of clutter comes from President reagan's secretary of state who said: "at this juncture of maturization" to mean "now". And when an air force missile crashed, it "impacted with the ground prematurely".
These examples are from _On Writing Well_ by William Zinsser, a book that should be read by everyone.
Midair Passenger Exchange
Grim air-traffic-controller-speak for a head-on collision. Midair passenger exchanges are quickly followed by aluminum rain.
Read the interview. The author has no issue with corporations using management speak. He has a problem with politicians and teachers. They have a different responsibility that this sort of language is NOT suited for.
There is nothing modern about it. The original Bullshit How-to Guide is Aristotle's Poetics, written around 350BC. It describes in exquisite detail, how to create religious texts...
Oh well, what the hell...