Pocket paradigms: Communications

IF YOU CHALLENGE the contemporary "communicator," you are likely to find the argument transformed from whatever you thought you were talking about to something quite different -- generally more abstract and grandiose. For example if you are opposed to the communicator's proposed policy on trade you may be accused of being against "change" or "fearful of new ideas" and so forth. There is an hyperbolic quality to this language that shatters one's normal sense of meaning. Simple competence is dubbed "a world-class operation," common efficiency is called "Total Quality Management," a conversation becomes "incredibly transforming," and a gathering of hyper-ambitious and single-minded professionals is called a "Renaissance" weekend.

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"A breakdown in communications," if you listen carefully to the eleven o'clock news, is the source of all human problems viz: "Police officials blamed the accidental shooting of three orphans in a drug bust on 7th Street on a breakdown in communications."