On Language

Ive just read another pathetic article about 'world affairs' by someone claiming the title 'expert'.

If language only served to 'say' something, words would be rarer, silence more frequent. Words are not used only to transmit a message, to inform about a fact, to create a feeling, to express a thought. They are also used to prevent communication, to put people off track, to put up a noisy, chattering screen between human beings and truth. In our society, where lies are considered as one of the fine arts of power, and falsification one of the natural instruments of profit, talking in order to say nothing has developed in just about every field.

One might believe that, in a company, the person called the 'director of communications' would be responsible for transmitting everyday news from the CEO to the storekeeper and from the representative to the client - an engineer if you will, for ensuring transparency, a magician of contacts, responsible for circulating the right words. WRONG. The Dir. of Communications is the new name of 'chief of publicity'. As can be seen everyday, publicity has nothing to do with 'truth' or 'transparency'.

Another title seemingly important, which expresses something that which it is not, is the 'director of Human Resources'. It is difficult to imagine a designation so amazingly rich in graces, virtues , gifts of spirit and heart. This 'director' is supposed to draw generously on the treasure of the human species, on the inexhaustible source of 'all that is human'. She who is responsible for human resources should be at the pinacle of spiritual power. However, the description of this rising princess of humanity turns out to be the tired old officer, once modestly known as the 'head of personnel', a sort of general inspector, superior foreman, a good bloke or careful watchdog, according to her character or the moment, caught in the squichy rotten area where slugs live -between the trunk of management and the bark of the waged workers.

This corruption of language has taken new highs these days. Not to mention the corruption of meaning - nota bene Bush's anal rupturing of the meaning of the word 'Freedom'. hmmm perhaps next post I will talk about the popular topic of terrorism, or something about 'agency' as i mentioned in the last post.