Maja Miljanich Brinkworth’s freshest screed in Times of Malta is so densely infested with weasel words that it takes major discipline and willpower to decipher the core of her lament, which is predictably the population decline among Caucasian Europeans.
For a person so obsessed with economic problems, Brinkworth sure is uneconomical when it comes to language, consistently using 20 words when five would do just fine.
Not understanding that uncontrolled growth is the philosophy of the cancer cell, she keeps agitating for “demographic potential”, “tackling the problem of regional disparities” and “progress on the income convergence front”.
Wading through this kind of pseudo-scientific psychobabble is a wild goose chase and a game of charades as it is a struggle to extract some sparse substance or sign of life from her moribund and unintelligible language. Here is an example: “Similarly to financial capital, regions need quality human capital in order to be able to perform well. This primarily means being able to create their own demographic potential, to maintain and retain it and, finally, to generate power to attract migrant human capital when necessary.”
What is this passage, for instance, but a call for the native Caucasians of Europe to have more Caucasian children and for migrants to only be allowed in whenever the indigenous populations need their walls plastered or their toilets fixed?
The most prevalent disease in present-day writing is a tendency to say what one has to say in as complicated a way as possible. Technical vocabulary pays its way honorably, while jargon elevates, inflates, magnifies and shrouds in politically-expedient obscurity.
Instead of being simple, terse and direct, it is stilted, long-winded and circumlocutory; instead of choosing the simple word it prefers the unusual; instead of the plain phrase the cliché.
The corruption of language promotes the corruption of life. It is even its prerequisite. A first step towards peace of mind and clarity of conscience is to call things by their true names.
This is something which Brinkworth should urgently take to heart.