{"id":370,"date":"2019-08-09T21:14:02","date_gmt":"2019-08-09T21:14:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.confidant.ca\/blog\/?p=370"},"modified":"2019-08-09T21:37:45","modified_gmt":"2019-08-09T21:37:45","slug":"defeating-the-jargon-hydra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.confidant.ca\/blog\/2019\/defeating-the-jargon-hydra\/","title":{"rendered":"Defeating the Jargon Hydra"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jargon drives me bonkers. Biz speak, technobabble\u2014whatever 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<\/a>. As a lover of truth this bothers me. So why does it happen?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. We\u2019ve become conditioned to skip over it<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Technology is making our society communicate more briefly. In\nhigh school I was taught to write business letters using a typewriter, and they\nwould always include a proper greeting, fully formed paragraphs, and a\ncourteous sign-off. These conventions were the norm when I began using email 23\nyears ago, and it wasn\u2019t long before I was doing double-takes when someone left\nout what I thought were the right elements. Then just when I became used to the\nbrevity of email, along came Twitter and instant messaging and even more terse\nexchanges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019t wanting to read (maybe you\u2019re 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\u2019t understand them. The result is that the writer can fake their way through the social media scene<\/a> or even into a scientific journal<\/a> without really saying anything of value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. We let them get away with it<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Even before electronic media people could still spout drivel.\nIn college I had a lot of exposure to the arts community and would come across\nstatements like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My work, which is figurative and symbolic in nature, explores the complex narrative of \u201cbeing\u201d. 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.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It would be much easier for them to say \u201cI like blending\nhuman and abstract images. Use your imagination to gain your own meaning and\nfeelings from it.\u201d However, just like in The Emperor\u2019s New Clothes,<\/em> the\nartist convinces many people to nod their heads and pretend that the word salad\nthey just read points to some much deeper meaning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps we\u2019re already sold on this person being a legitimate artist or maybe we just don\u2019t care enough about being deceived. The hydra will simply grow two more heads if we attack this one. <\/strong>So we don\u2019t challenge it (as Tom Wolfe did<\/a>) and the artist keeps on selling their paintings to the uncritical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. We Chicken Out<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Most people like to live in peace, and the sad fact is that challenging someone\u2019s ideas carries the risk of offending them. Do it online, and you might even get a legion of like-minded people<\/a> harassing you for a long time without even fully understanding why. Is it any wonder that we avoid conflict online? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defeating the Hydra<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to jargon, it is the truth and our valued time which are at stake. We should do something to protect these.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s some wisdom on the internet which says \u201cDon\u2019t feed the trolls.\u201d There is much older wisdom<\/a> which says both \u201cDo not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be just like him,\u201d and \u201cAnswer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.\u201d These statements taken together give us a good start for engaging jargon-spouters. There is no one right method\u2014we simply have to choose our battles wisely with the little time we have. Wash, rinse, repeat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do I think the hydra can be defeated? It depends on how you frame it. There\u2019s 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 friend, and fight for truth when you can!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I take the time to decipher jargon I often discover that it is being used to obscure bad ideas or empty words\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[48,49],"class_list":["post-370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-technology","tag-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p28GE6-5Y","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confidant.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confidant.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confidant.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confidant.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confidant.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.confidant.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":380,"href":"https:\/\/www.confidant.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370\/revisions\/380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confidant.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confidant.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confidant.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}