\u2018Words have power\u2019 is a common sentiment among public life\u2019s scribblers, as well as many of its participants. One sense in which this is true is that they give solidity to what George Orwell termed \u201cpure wind\u201d in his famous essay about political language<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The distinction between abstract and concrete promises is the subject of a piece in UnHerd <\/em>today<\/a> by the writer Zachary Hardman. Citing Orwell and others, Hardman argues that politicians\u2019 increasing focus on the abstract has untethered our politics from people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Both left and right talk of \u2018equality\u2019, \u2018responsibility\u2019 and \u2018aspiration\u2019: vague, abstract words with no relevance to people\u2019s lived experience. Even when politicians try to resolve these problems, their language fails to bring ordinary people onside. \u2018Social mobility\u2019 and \u2018levelling up\u2019 are phrases almost unheard outside the corridors of Westminster.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Does \u2018equality\u2019 have no relevance to people\u2019s lives? If so it\u2019s hard to explain why so many people took the knee in sympathy with the Black Lives Matter movement. A demand for equal treatment is so innate in us that it can be observed<\/a> in other primates we are closely related to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Likewise, don\u2019t most of us feel responsible at times? (Psychopaths may be the exception.) Aspiration is also real enough to anyone who has hoped for better from their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is true that normal people don\u2019t talk about \u2018social mobility\u2019 or \u2018levelling up\u2019, but such phrases are just the industry jargon of politics. Every field of human endeavour has its own insider lexicon as shorthand for things that would otherwise take a while to explain, and you can\u2019t expect politics to be exempt. The only hope is that its use is restricted to internal memos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardman goes on to claim that more concrete language is more engaging to voters. He writes that politics has become \u201cincreasingly technocratic and distant from everyday concerns\u201d. But isn\u2019t the point of technocracy to sensibly run public services without reference to the abstractions that allegedly turn people off?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for the enfeeblement of local government since the Second World War, what\u2019s been left is about as concrete as you can get. No public service is more visible than the collection of wheelie bins, except perhaps the lack thereof. Local elections are said to be poorly attended because the winning candidate ends up with little power, but it may simply be that bins are boring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To my eye what stirs people tends to be abstract, not least the demands for national self-determination seen in Brexit, the Scottish independence movement, and perhaps even the enthusiasm for Donald Trump in the United States. When choosing between liberty and life, the American politician Patrick Henry favoured intangible freedom to tangible existence. This may be the rule, rather than the exception.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Words have power\u2019 is a common sentiment among public life\u2019s scribblers, as well as many of its participants. One sense in which this is true is that they give solidity to what George Orwell termed \u201cpure wind\u201d in his famous essay about political language. The distinction between abstract and concrete promises is the subject of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rightdishonourable.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5091"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rightdishonourable.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rightdishonourable.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rightdishonourable.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rightdishonourable.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5091"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/rightdishonourable.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5094,"href":"http:\/\/rightdishonourable.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5091\/revisions\/5094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rightdishonourable.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rightdishonourable.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rightdishonourable.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}