The Real Man Behind the Speechwriters

Abstract

As we have seen in the previous chapter, most, but not all, politicians appear to have, if not exactly a split personality, at least two quite different ways of expressing themselves, one for occasions which their instincts tell them are safe and another for moments when the enemy is judged to be lying in wait, ready to pounce on the unguarded word and carry it off in triumph. Businessmen display exactly the same characteristics. Their main concern is to avoid saying anything definite or precise in public, in the belief that, in order to survive, one has to surround oneself with a thick, impenetrable layer of vagueness. A thick layer of silence is sometimes used for the same purpose. Both the vagueness and the silence are liable to drive journalists and interviewers mad. There is nothing to get a firm grip on, nothing to argue about, nothing to disagree with.