Getting Less Information Faster

“The speed of communications is wondrous to behold,” according to the late journalist Edward R. Murrow. “It is also true that speed can multiply the distribution of information that we know to be untrue.”

The enormous distribution of disinformation disseminated against Pres. Obama’s health care reforms represents an obvious attempt to scare people into thinking that they are on the verge of losing something precious. Witness the lack of dialogue and the glut of emotion (mostly hate) that characterize the so-called Town Hall (a.k.a. Town Brawl) meetings.

When the 18th Century Puritans in New England were losing members of their congregation, the imagery in the pastors’ sermons became increasingly graphic. The emphasis was on the horrific. For example, Jonathan Edwards’ 1741 sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” vividly depicts the unredeemed as repugnant insects dangling over hell’s gaping pit.

Politicians aware of losing members of their constituency are also using imagery based on igniting fear and hatred. Study the verbiage. Pay attention to the metaphors, the images, and most of all the slogans that are used.

Remember what Orwell said in “Politics and the English Language”: “This mixture of vagueness and sheer incompetence is the most marked characteristic of modern English prose, and especially of any kind of political writing. As soon as certain topics are raised, the concrete melts into the abstract and no one seems able to think of turns of speech that are not hackneyed: prose consists less and less of words chosen for the sake of their meaning, and more and more of phrases tacked together like the sections of a prefabricated henhouse.”