Jargon drives me bonkers. Biz speak, technobabble—whatever you want to call the esoteric language people use so often. Now maybe I am simply losing my capacity for advanced wording, but when I take the time to decipher jargon, I often discover that it is being used to obscure bad ideas or empty words. It seems I am not the only person noticing this. As a lover of truth, this bothers me. So why does it happen?
1. We’ve become conditioned to skip over it
Technology is making our society communicate more briefly. In high school I was taught to write business letters using a typewriter, and they would always include a proper greeting, fully formed paragraphs, and a courteous sign-off. These conventions were the norm when I began using email 23 years ago, and it wasn’t long before I was doing double-takes when someone left out what I thought were the right elements. Then, just when I became used to the brevity of email, along came Twitter, instant messaging, and even more terse exchanges.
The problem is, as we get used to quick information, we get lazy about reading longer writing. Nowadays we tend to scan for the takeaway items and buzz words, but skim over the words that we aren’t wanting to read (maybe you’re even doing it with this article). Anyway, even in our skimming our brains still register the fact that we have just experienced some high-fluting language, and the suggestion is planted in our minds that because the author uses some big words they must have some worthy ideas—even when we don’t understand them. The result is that the writer can fake their way through the social media scene, or even into a scientific journal, without really saying anything of value.
2. We let them get away with it
Even before electronic media, people could still spout drivel. In college I had a lot of exposure to the arts community, and I would come across statements like this:
My work, which is figurative and symbolic in nature, explores the complex narrative of “being”. I am interested in the anthropomorphic as it associates to the human condition, where image, self and the subconscious reside and collide. Abstraction and figuration constantly intertwine facilitating a narrative that is subjective, idiosyncratic and coloured.
It would be much easier for them to say “I like blending human and abstract images. Use your imagination to gain your own meaning and feelings from it.” However, just like in The Emperor’s New Clothes, the artist convinces many people to nod their heads and pretend that the word salad they just read points to some much deeper meaning.
Perhaps we’re already sold on this person being a legitimate artist, or maybe we just don’t care enough about being deceived. The hydra will simply grow two more heads if we attack this one. So we don’t challenge it (as Tom Wolfe did) and the artist keeps on selling their paintings to the uncritical.
3. We Chicken Out
Most people like to live in peace, and the sad fact is that challenging someone’s ideas carries the risk of offending them. Do it online, and you might even get a legion of like-minded people harassing you for a long time without even fully understanding why. Is it any wonder that we avoid conflict online?
Defeating the Hydra
When it comes to jargon, it is the truth and our valued time which are at stake. We should do something to protect these.
There’s some wisdom on the internet which says “Don’t feed the trolls.” There is much older wisdom which says both “Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be just like him,” and “Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.” These statements taken together give us a good start for engaging jargon-spouters. There is no one right method—we simply have to choose our battles wisely with the little time we have. Wash, rinse, repeat.
Do I think the hydra can be defeated? It depends on how you frame it. There’s all sorts of little hydras we can defeat every day. Very few people can change the world all by themselves, but we all can do good works and have victories of our own. Choose wisely my friends, and fight for truth when you can!
