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Attack of the Corporate Weasel Words

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the preach-on-brother dept.

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."

2 of 490 comments (clear)

  1. Already Written by shaunj · · Score: 5, Informative

    Didn't Orwell write this long ago:

    http://www.resort.com/~prime8/Orwell/patee.html

  2. Outsource This! by minginqunt · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.