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The Forum > Article Comments > Against the spin ... how about language reform, too? > Comments

Against the spin ... how about language reform, too? : Comments

By Torrey Orton, published 8/4/2008

We used to be cynical about spin, but have we become so comfortable with it that it has co-opted us?

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It's the opening para that got me, 'and less truth than ever'. I wonder if truth is actually diminishing; being erased by the slothful language of teenagers and HR managers. Herald Sun line: 'Today we lost more truth - like, whatever'.

Reckon there's two stories here: one on political spin and the other on management speak and the use of cliches.
Posted by Cheryl, Tuesday, 8 April 2008 5:10:36 PM
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First point good topic and relevant Torrey.
But the merchants of spin cannot tell the truth in any concrete and meaningful way because there is devious treachery under way and that would give the game away - presently and in the future. As well, there are generally economic interests at stake such as "privatisation" which means private wealth or similar to "restructuring" which is a lot closer to destruction. As well, there has been a long concerted camaign dressed up through jargon and spin to degrade and debase society. Starting about 1985 when the "bankers men" Hawke and Keating were in power who handed over hospitals to their cronies and ran down 66 public hospitals with the inevital loss of lives. Back in 2000 the federal government (Liberals)spent $17 million on a public scare campaign. Playing on concerns over the rundown state of public hospitals, one TV commercial featured vanishing public hospital beds alongside smiling and healthy patients in state-of-the-art private facilities. The commercials urged viewers to “run for cover”. Spin was in its prime. The result was a field day for the big insurers. Long queues extended outside the offices of Medibank Private, and other private insurance companies, while call-centres took on extra staff to deal with a flood of phone calls and credit-card payments. Most do not see a one sided war going on in society, against society and as Aeschylus a Greek tragic dramatist (525 BC - 456 BC) explained so insightfully "In war, truth is the first casualty." So the real relations are inverted (Orwellian) and replaced by spin or jargon. The latest from Rudd is "brutopia" and that is being prepared in the wings - a level of attacks against workers, pensioners, the disabled and the social infrastructure or what is left of it.
Posted by johncee1945, Tuesday, 8 April 2008 5:19:40 PM
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I think I agree with the author. But I am not 100% sure. Not because he obfuscates with weasel words but because, quite honestly, I am unsure what the actual message is.

If it is a polemic against aforesaid weasel words and meaningless jargon then I definitely agree - with the rider that the term "weasel words" is, for me, completely weaselly. I am behind any call for clearer speech in all fields whether medical, academic, political or general.

However I am unsure if that is what is intended here or if we are merely being encouraged to cut down on hyperbole and stick to unvarnished facts? A call which has never attracted many adherents. Probably because the richness of the English language, with all its opportunities for shaded variants, clever manipulation and double entendres provides such wonderful opportunities with which to mess about.

I am confounded by such sentences as: "I look forward to the major news outlet which explicitly attempts to present the full picture that any particular event inhabits. What it would look like to do so will be the subject of another article, but a sketch is provided later here."

An event which "inhabits" a picture? Surely that is a completely jargonistic use of the verb? And the "it" in the next sentence? I thought it referred to the major news outlet in the foregoing sentence. However it seems to be tied up with the verb "look forward". In which case I am genuinely flummoxed.

The paragraph beginning "For example, the commercialised worldview..."
also leaves me confused as I hoed in to it imagining I was on the familiar path of deceptive language - only to take a wrong turn somewhere and find myself thrashing around in the unknown territory of production cycles.

I have this feeling that I have lost my way somewhere and risk agreeing heartily with a subject about which I know absolutely nothing. But if this is a plea for more clarity of expression I think presenting it in this way was a very clever move
Posted by Romany, Tuesday, 8 April 2008 5:41:46 PM
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I declare Romany's post 78% more funnier and jargon-freer than the original article!

*OFF TOPIC*
Romany, I was wondering what things are like on the ground where you are. Are people talking about the torch relay and the protests? Hmmm... maybe we will have to adjourn to another thread...
*/OFF TOPIC*
Posted by Vanilla, Tuesday, 8 April 2008 10:03:00 PM
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"I declare Romany's post 78% more funnier and jargon-freer than the original article!"

I declare Vanilla's reply 78% less articulate than the article. What is it about modern schooling that engenders the use of double superlatives (now common in pop song lyrics- "more greener")?

I couldn't agree more with Mr Orton with regard to "weasel words", which are becoming increasing popular in my own government department, especially as more of the upper echelons (who are, in the main, scientists) add MBAs to their academic credentials.

Some of my least favourite "weasel words" include "at the present moment in time" for "now" and the turning of nouns into verbs (a practice beloved of Americans) like "contextualise". We can perhaps blame the Americans too, for execrable words like "doable". What's wrong with "achievable"?
Posted by viking13, Tuesday, 15 April 2008 2:27:59 PM
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