U.S. Society Faces Critical Credibility Erosion According to “Ultimate Severance” Novelist
Author of new satiric business novel “Ultimate Severance” and spin lexicographer warns spin is an intellectual bubonic plague that must be fought with facts, exposure and ridicule to prevent the spinspeak virus from rotting rational thought.
Providence, RI (PRWEB via PR Web
Direct) Aug. 10, 2005 -- The author of the new novel “Ultimate Severance”
accuses an “amoral Spindoc Industry of spreading an intellectual bubonic plague
that erodes credibility throughout American society.”
James Baar, whose
new satiric novel depicts a world awash with spinspeak, said that the increasing
corruption of language with spin eventually opens to question all statements of
fact. He said a national awakening employing facts, exposure of language
pollution and ridicule is urgently needed to preserve rational thought and
recommended three essential spin detection tools.
In a statement issued
in connection with the approaching anniversary of his "Spinspeak Letter" on the
www.spinspeak.com weblog,
Baar said:
“Scientific Method that created the great technological
triumphs of Western civilization is being undercut by slick spindocs who
redescribe the world every morning with repeatedly redefined words and phrases.
Nothing is black, white red or blue. Instead, the world looks like a
particularly bad paint-spatter show at the Museum of Modern Art. The most
obvious truth is sullied.
“What I tried to do in "Ultimate Severance" is
show what the world is like when everyone makes everything up as he goes along.
Any piece of baloney – 100 proof flim-flam -- is OK because now you say it is
really filet mignon; or, vice versa: just pour Elixir de Snake Oil on genuine
filet mignon and you convince everyone it’s baloney or old chicken. Either way,
humbuggery is clearly on the march.”
Baar’s three essential
spin-detection tools used by him last year to develop "Spinspeak II: The
Dictionary of Language Pollution" are:
• Vet all
neo-meanings given to words and phrases in the context of the user’s special
interests.
• Vet all neo-labels, titles and nouns and
noun phrases in apposition for factual content (if
any).
• Flag for vetting all neo-usages of words and
phrases.
Baar points out that spin -- deliberate language corruption --
is everywhere: a surly illiterate who can barely answer a phone is magically
transmogrified by calling her a “customer relations specialist”; a school
system, failing because pupils don’t learn anything, becomes “much improved” by
“equalizing” test standards; C-student presidential candidates become
“intellectual giants” and “total morons.”
Or, on the other hand, Baar
cites the common Washington political gambit for derailing a solid nomination by
saying that you have “questions” about the nominee. After enough people say
that, the same people begin saying the nominee is “damaged goods.” And after
awhile if the nominee hasn’t gone home, the same people say “we can do better in
a bi-partisan way.”
“Bubonic plague used to race through a community
leaving most of the residents dead,” Baar said. “The spinspeak virus -- an
intellectual bubonic plague -- races through our society eroding credibility
with effects more like a neutron bomb: the residents are left alive but brain
dead.
“Unfortunately, spin is so potent that it’s hooked users hunger
continually for more and stronger spin and are bemused with the typical addict’s
delusion that it won’t destroy their minds along with those of their victims.
Moreover, a multi-billion dollar amoral Spindoc Industry has grown up to support
the commercial demand and feed it. And much of the media, society’s so-called
watchdogs, are already traumatized by spinspeak and spread it rather than expose
it.”
“The solution, as often is the case when fighting forces of
darkness, is intense sunlight. Facts, exposure, ridicule are the weapons of
choice -- particularly ridicule. The devil hates to be laughed at.”
Jim
Baar
Visit the Spinspeak Letter Website www.spinspeak.com
Voice: 401-331-2653
Fax:
508-861-0226
For review copy: books @ omegacom.com
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/8/prweb270707.htm