When asked why a \ufb01fth of Americans were unable to locate their country on a world map, Miss Teen South Carolina, a high-school graduate, gave this answer in front of rolling cameras: \u2018I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don\u2019t have maps, and I believe that our education like such as South Africa and the Iraq everywhere like such as and I believe that they should our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future.\u2019<\/p>\n
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The video went viral. Catastrophic, you agree, but you don\u2019t waste too much time listening to beauty queens. OK, how about the following sentence? \u2018Thereis certainly no necessity that this increasingly re\ufb02exive transmission of cultural traditions be associated with subject-centred reason and future-oriented historical consciousness. To the extent that we become aware of the intersubjective constitution of freedom, the possessive-individualist illusion of autonomy as self-ownership disintegrates.\u2019 Ring any bells? Top German philosopher and sociologist J\u00fcrgen Habermas in Between Facts and Norms. Both of these are manifestations of the same phenomenon, the twaddle tendency. Here, reams of words are used to disguise intellectual laziness, stupidity, or underdeveloped ideas. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.<\/p>\n
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For the beauty queen, the smokescreen strategy failed spectacularly. For Habermas, it might be working. The more eloquent the haze of words, the more easily we fall for them. If used in conjunction with the authority bias it can be especially dangerous as we are willing to accept the words without questioning them. I myself have fallen for the twaddle tendency on many occasions. When I was younger, French philosopher Jacques Derrida fascinated me. I devoured his books, but even after intense re\ufb02ection I still couldn\u2019t understand much. Subsequently his writings took on a mysterious aura, and the whole experience drove me to write my dissertation on philosophy. In retrospect, both were tomes of useless chatter \u2013 Derrida and my dissertation. In my ignorance, I had turned\u00a0myself into a walking, talking smoke machine. The twaddle tendency is especially rife in sport. Breathless interviewers push equally breathless football players to break down the components of the game, when all they want to say is: \u2018We lost the game \u2013 it\u2019s really that simple.\u2019 But the presenter has to \ufb01ll airtime somehow \u2013 and seemingly the best method is by jabbering away and by compelling the athletes and coaches to join in. Jabber disguises ignorance.<\/p>\n
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This phenomenon has also taken root in the academic spheres. The fewer results a branch of science publishes, the more babble is necessary. Particularly exposed are economists, which can be seen in their comments and economic forecasts. The same is true for commerce on a smaller scale: the worse-off a company is, the greater the talk of the CEO. The extra chatter extends to not just a lot of talking, but to hyperactivity, also designed to mask the hardship. A laudable exception is the former CEO of General Electric, Jack Welch. He once said in an interview: \u2018You would not believe how dif\ufb01cult it is to be simple and clear. People are afraid that they may be seen as a simpleton. In reality, just the opposite is true.\u2019<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In conclusion: verbal expression is the mirror of the mind. Clear thoughts become clear statements, whereas ambiguous ideas transform into vacant ramblings. The trouble is that, in many cases, we lack very lucid thoughts. The world is complicated, and it takes a great deal of mental effort to understand even one facet of the whole. Until you experience such an epiphany, it\u2019s better to heed Mark Twain: \u2018Ifyou have nothing to say, say nothing.\u2019 Simplicity is the zenith of a long, arduous journey, not the starting point.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Art of Thinking Clearly<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\n Image:\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/span>Don’t Speak: Witty Portraits by Thibault Delhom<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When asked why a \ufb01fth of Americans were unable to locate their country on a world map, Miss Teen South Carolina, a high-school graduate, gave this answer in front of rolling cameras: \u2018I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because 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\nRolph Dobelli<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n