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February 20, 2004
Another quote from Don Watson from Death Sentence on the decay of public language. He says that instrumental reason's corporate language, which has come to dominate public discourse, has:
"...no space for the light of the imagination. There is no room for a feeling properly felt. There is no room for an 'other'--- which with writing is usually the reader. You cannot tell if the author of the words is genuine or not because they have no author. They are ritual words. It is as if, like someone with schizophrenia or depression, they are not quite of the real world. They have forgotten the language the rest of us speak."
What we are losing is language that expresses character or imagination and which interests one human being in another. It is as if we are witnessing the apothesis of the psotmodern with the human subject dispensing with itself.
The world of parliamentary politics is marked by this decay of language. Inspirational independent thinking is not encouraged. Political language has been colonized by that of the corporate world. Watson says:
"Political thought and speech has been entangled with the corporate stuff for years, and unless a way is found to separate them, in a generation or two few will know that anything better once existed. We do not wait for Pericles, but we hope for something better from a politician than a poor imitation of a business consultant. "
Politicians have become managers of events. They see themselves as CEO's even if their salary is very low by executive business standards. They only know the corporate model. They conduct themselves like business executives and speak like them.
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