[Neurons] 2024 Neurons #37 HOW TO USE MANY WORDS & SAY NOTHING

[Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall

2024 Neurons #37

August 31, 2024 

 

HOW TO USE MANY WORDS

AND SAY NOTHING

                                                                        

When I listened to the CNN interview this past Thursday (August 29) between
the interviewer and the presidential candidate, I listened with my NLP-ears.
I listened not so much to the content, but to the process and structure.
All I will present here is the first minute or two which is how it began.
Consider this an NLP perspective which reveals how most politicians seem to
think and speak.  I have italicized abstract words, vague words and
nominalizations.

 

Bash: The voters are really eager to hear what your plans are.  If you are
elected, what would you do on day one in the White House?

Harris: Well, there are a number of things.  I will tell you first and
foremost one of my highest priorities is to do what we can to support and
strengthen the middle class.  When I look at the aspirations, the goals, the
ambitions of the American people, I think that people are ready for a new
way forward in a way that generations of Americans have been fueled by-by
hope and by optimism.

I think sadly in the last decade, we have had in the former president
someone who has really been pushing an agenda and an environment that is
about diminishing the character and the strength of who we are as
Americans-really dividing our nation.  And I think people are ready to turn
the page on that.

 

Amazingly, two paragraphs and 120-plus words and she did not offer a single
item of what she would actually do on day one.  One visual word "look at the
aspirations..." three kinesthetic words: "pushing an agenda..." "dividing
our nation..." "turning the page."  Talk about hypnotic language!  Those two
paragraphs are full of vague non-referring words, nominalizations, and
metaphors.  Isn't that incredible!  In terms of being a professional
communicator-this is what we do not want.  Further, she did not answer the
question!  Dana Bash caught that and so she repeated the question.

 

Bash: So what would you do Day One?

Harris: Day One, it's gonna be about one, implementing my plan for what I
call an opportunity economy. I've already laid out a number of proposals in
that regard, which include what we're gonna do to bring down the cost of
everyday goods, what we're gonna do to invest in America's small businesses,
what we're gonna do to invest in families.

For example, extending the child tax credit to $6,000 for families for the
first year of their child's life to help them buy a car seat, to help them
buy baby clothes, a crib.  There's the work that we're gonna do that is
about investing in the American family around affordable housing, a big
issue in our country right now.  So there are a number of things on day one.

 


Wow!  Two more paragraphs and another 120-plus words and only vague phrases
that have no actual referent and nothing that could be counted or measured
later to test if she will do that on day one.    The one specific item:
"extending the child tax credit to $6,000" is something that they have
already done, this just raises the amount a bit.  So why wait? If it is
important to do, and if you are already Vice-President, why not do it now?

 

What a model for how to use many words to say nothing!  Like so many
politicians, with this kind of hypnotic language, you can promise the moon
without being held accountable for anything specific.  This is the kind of
language that needs to change in Politics if we are to change the world.
And it would not be hard.  With even just a small exposure of NLP- a person
can learn to be a lot more specific and precise.  Of course, politicians
tend to not want to do that.  Why?  My guess is a fear of accountability. 

 

The cure here is the Meta-Model of Language that you can find in The
Structure of Magic (1975), User's Manual of the Brain (1999) and
Communication Magic (1997). 

 

 

                             

 

 

 




 

 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

Executive Director, ISNS

738 Beaver Lodge

Grand Jct., CO. 81505 USA

meta at acsol.net

 

 



 

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