Red Herrings & The Blue Sky

[Monte Davis]

John Bailey sez:  "So much of the business of business in the late
capitalist era seems to involve dressing 'fraudulent exploitation' in an
ever-changing array of linguistic petticoats."

 

Since the early 1980s, for my sins, I've written speeches, video and
multimedia scripts, etc. for senior executives at about thirty of the
Fortune 500. Many were for internal meetings and presentations to business
partners rather than directed to customers or the public. 

 

After a while I could tell from the buzzwords and buzzphrases in vogue which
business best-seller
<http://productsearch.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?STORE=book&FMT=
physical&CAT=967828&SRT=SA>  (or which evangelist team from McKinsey, Bain,
Boston, etc.) had captivated the C-suite most recently. These serve much the
same function for corporations that self-help books and motivational
seminars do for individuals: this year I really *am* going to lose weight,
stand up to my in-laws, stop gobbling Vicodin, whatever. Trust me: the
"linguistic petticoats" (stolen, thanks) are as important in self-deception
as in fraudulent exploitation of outsiders.

 

(Whaddya mean that's not much comfort..?)

 

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