Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

It seems we haven’t learned much as we still read stuff that makes no sense.

A long time ago, I heard a political commentator read part of a political party’s platform. Parties used to do these platforms to inform everyone of what they were saying. The commentator would read a sentence and then remark, “This is amazing. All these words are in the dictionary!”

What did the words mean? Nothing. In my research on this phrase, I found, “Vagueness is a failure of intent. It is a deliberate, highly calculated use of perfect grammar to say absolutely nothing.”

Aha, use words (all of whom are in the dictionary) to say nothing.

Alas, I haven’t read any party platforms recently. Do they still do that? Some companies have their manifestos or policy statements, but I haven’t seen any platforms lately. Still, I read many things. I work in and around our Federal government. I have read too many things where most (not all, but most) of the words were in the dictionary. The documents said nothing.

Must we do this? Must we engage in this foolishness? Come on folks, we can do better. Let’s do better.