Eschew Obfuscation

When I was first amused by this bumper sticker, years ago now, I thought it was directed at the pompously educated, those who think big-worded, convoluted language equals profundity. It fit my idea that the worst writers were educators.

Recently, I have gained another view. Management has perfected the art of obfuscation. And I mean to include the kind of management we call politics.

To hear spokesperson after spokesperson (that would be "talking mouth" after "tm") projectile-vomiting obviously predigested "talking points" as answers to any questions, any civic concerns, any evidence to the contrary is to hear obfuscation at the very highest and most dangerous levels.

Recently, I sat in a meeting with an academic manager who kept repeating his experiences fr0m twenty years before instead of directly facing and answering questions about the very specific welfare of students and faculty.

We used to describe such verbal whirlings-about as "tornadic," but I have gone beyond, now. Not even "hurricanic" seems apt, but I think "Katrinic" might work--with its connotations of windy destruction and collapsed-levee onslaught of Biblical proportions.

Now that I think more of it, it's just fine to link the disaster that was and is Katrina with the breakdown of logic and good will among managers who scramble among shards of learning and word-trinkets to advocate for some narrow bottom-linedness, some fundamentallly CYA motives.

Well, it seems apt to me, to visualize politicians screwing with the language and managers pettifogging for their infantile rewards, to preserve their name-plates, big desks, high-floor offices, secret alliances beyond the comprehension of mere (non-managerial) mortals, and legacy.

Oh, yeah. Legacy. And power.