The Power and Hazard Of Undefined Terms

Back in September of "08, I was writing a post from the floor of a McCain/Palin town hall meeting and said the following [in brown text]:

"Before I close... there is another question we hear during political races that is completely meaningless because its terms are undefined. You’ve heard it in countless polls that for some reason get reported as if it's shocking news. It is the answer to this survey question that has much of “the media,” pollsters, and spin doctors perplexed. Here’s the poll question:

“Is the country headed in the wrong direction?”

In any given week, we may hear that 80% of those asked feel America's headed in the wrong direction. If that is true, some people conclude, then there should be no way for a Republican presidential candidate to win an election in 2008. But the question is meaningless because the word direction is not defined. Are we talking economic direction? Military direction? Moral direction? The question never tells us. Because of that, Pamela Anderson would answer the question “Yes, it’s going in the wrong direction” for reasons shared by her Hollywood peers and the 50% of America that cares what "stars" think. Meanwhile the other 50% of America may also answer “Yes” because they shudder at the thought that the opinions of Pamela Anderson reflect the collective conscience of so many people.

So you see, the answer to the “wrong direction” question is meaningless in that the “yes” responses are often interpreted as a unified assessment while actually masking opposing concerns and conflicting solutions.

The epitome of meaninglessness of that "wrong direction" question was crystallized in Obama's campaign slogan "Change You Can Believe In." Question: What did that really mean? Answer: Whatever Obama and his teleprompter controllers want it to mean.

But now that the first "100 days" of "Change you can believe in" is open to evaluation, and our president is glad-handing on both continents with known enemies of the United States, lets look at what one of those enemies says to confirm what I meant when I said meaningless "undefined" terms like "wrong direction" and "change" are clever ways to get in office but dangerous ways to govern:

Here are the words of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad:

"I should give you, the new US administration, this advice. Mr Obama came to power with the slogan of 'change', meaning the American people like the rest of the world want a change in the colonialism policy," Ahmdinejad told crowds in a speech broadcast live from Varamin, a city south of Tehran.

"Therefore it would have been imperative for him to take part in the world's most important conference of racism and denounce racism, (confirming) that the US is pursuing a changed policy in confronting racism," he added.

"But to sit at his place and condemn my remarks is not helpful in solving the issues," he added, amid the habitual slogans of "death to America and death to Israel."

Ahmadinejad is an enemy that Obama, thus far, has given wide birth, but even the enemies Obama is trying to be chummy with seem unimpressed.

How soon the fine veneer flakes off the pulpy wood.

There is both power and hazard in being vague enough fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but make no mistake that kind of power is short-lived and the hazards lead not to "change" but to irreparable damage.
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