A barrage of buzzwords - overuse of jargon - Column

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), Jan, 1997 by Gerald F. Kreyche

Every profession has its own jargon. For example, surgeons don't speak of making a cut in a patient's side, but of a lateral incision. They make sutures, not stitches, in closing a wound. In medical terms, what the layman knows as a heart attack becomes a myocardial infarction.

Politicians likewise have their own jargon, most of which consists of "buzzwords," itself a buzzword. Some phrases hang around for a long time, as they can prove useful in obfuscating issues, while others, like a shooting star, flame out quickly. An example is Attorney General John Mitchell's denial of remembering important issues of Watergate. Repeatedly, he claimed that he couldn't recall any "at this point in time." This legal subterfuge has been used by nearly everyone having something to hide and continues to this day - specially in the Whitewater affair. It neatly avoids the onus of taking the Fifth Amendment. Others, such as Pres. George Bush, when questioned about whether or how Col. Oliver North and Pres. Ronald Reagan were involved in the sale of arms to Iran, told reporters that he knew nothing as he was "out of the loop."

"I feel your pain"

Pres. Clinton makes full use of his coming from a small town called Hope and of being raised in an abusive and alcoholic environment. Exploiting this, he tells the downtrodden, "I feel your pain." Others use the empathetic phrase, but never quite so effectively as the President. Clinton certainly is as deserving of the title, "The Great Communicator," as Reagan was.

Vice Pres. Al Gore has made the most of trying to "reinvent government." Supposedly, it meant to "downsize," "restructure," and "refocus" on the essentials and "cut out the fat." Mostly, it has amounted only to reshuffling the cards one has and not calling for a new deck.

Public relations specialists continually let the press know of "photo-ops" and forthcoming "media events." They also are the "spinmeisters" who specialize in putting the best light on any story, ignoring or downplaying anything bad connected with it.

Republicans push "privatization" as though that word alone automatically will reduce costs and promote efficiency, thereby improving "the bottom line." Whether politicians preach reform of welfare, immigration, Social Security, or Medicare/Medicaid, all agree that a "safety" should be provided so that some deserving people don't "slip through the cracks."

"Family values" currently is an "in" phrase, despite a changing definition of family that threatens them. Gays and lesbians are trying their best to revise Webster's clear definition of a formal union between man and woman, taking the matter to court.

"Quality time" was a nice phrase to assuage the guilt of working mothers. In the August, 1996, issue of Ladies Home Journal, Stanley Turecki, a family psychiatrist with The Difficult Child Center in New York, maintains that "It takes as little as fifteen minutes a day to forge a meaningful bond." One stay-at-home mother stated that, if career mothers really believe this, she has a bridge she would like to sell them!

"Outrage" is another overused word by feminists and strident minorities. What they don't seem to realize is that when a word is so worn, it loses its impact.

"Window of opportunity" originally was applied by the space program, indicating a favorable limited time frame for a successful launch. Now, every chance for achieving a goal in any endeavor uses that term. The phrase more or less mimics the old blacksmith rubric of "strike when the iron is hot." "Pushing the envelope" is another aeronautical term that once referred to exceeding the expectations of an engineering endeavor. Now it applies to going beyond the current limitations of any activity, be it a faster mile in track or a student exceeding his normal capacity.

Legal authorities and anti-drug proponents often use a term from engineering, "zero tolerance." This can apply to curfew violation, possession of the most minute amount of drugs, enforcement of speed limit laws, etc. The idea is sound enough, but it rarely is applied. For instance, the Hell's Angels motorcycle gang and other's recently terrorized Steamboat Springs, Colo. Two members were shot, but the gang wouldn't allow police to investigate until the motorcyclists cleaned up the scene. As a consequence, virtually nothing was done and no one was arrested. The police piously said they didn't want to start a ruckus that could have resulted in serious injury to the citizenry. Various Colorado editorialists, speaking from a safe distance, excoriated the cops for not following the law.

We still use politically correct terms such as "inclusive" in referring to granting medical and social benefits to minorities, the handicapped, and undocumented aliens and their children. Meanwhile, there is a "dumbing down" of academics and a boast that "elitism" has been dealt a severe blow and democracy has won out again. Sooner or later, we will be done in by our "success."

"Downsizing" has become a synonym for profits that verge on the immoral and getting rid of high-priced middle management. It even refers to what is happening to royalty in places such as England, still hanging in there with a useless and scandalous monarchial system. As we enter the world of the computer, we now "surf the Net," "download," and enter "cyberspace" to encounter "virtual reality."