Caveat Emptor

In a post yesterday with the subject I doubt that the Pope did anyway I used the phrase 'wiggle room' in regards to the spokesperson using the phrase 'the Vatican' in terms of who didn't know about the Bishop's collaboration with the Communist secret police. I could have used a different phrase for that. I could have written 'weasel words'. These phrases mean slippery, wiggly words that give people room to deny things or to tell the truth without telling all the truth. Plausible deniability. What it all comes down to ultimately is 'Let the buyer beware.'.

No matter what we do we're put in the position of consumer. People think that the phrase 'let the buyer beware' refers to commerce - the purchasing of goods - but really, it refers to lots of other things. We're consumers of news, for instance, and this is one of the most obvious places where we have to beware. When we're told 'Washington' didn't know about something what does that mean? George Bush? His cabinet? When the spokesperson for a company or government, for George Bush or Stephen Harper, says we didn't know about this or that, who exactly is 'we'? He and his family? His dog? Really, the words are meaningless. But even more diabolical are the phrases used to trick us into believing that something is something it isn't.

What does 'Against animal testing' mean? Does it mean that that product isn't tested on animals or that the people who manufacture the product are against animal testing in general but, darn, they just have to do it with their product? People who grow organically sometimes use weasel words to try to make the consumer think that the product is a Fair Trade product as well. If something is produced in one good way, well, it must be produced in another good way as well, musn't it? 'We support Fair Trade' doesn't mean that the product is fair trade produced at all but we're conditioned to accept what they say and interpret it in the best light possible.

In the area of faith this happens all the time. People talk about faith and God in phrases that allow a huge variance in interpretation. What do they really mean?

I think what it all comes down to is Caveat Emptor. It's up to us to ask ourselves at least what people mean. One of the things that seems to have disappeared from education (other than a classical liberal arts education) is critical thinking. People aren't taught to think critically. That doesn't mean that a person need become a cynic but rather that people learn to think about the substance of what's being said and not simply attach their own suppositions and interpretations on it.

There endeth my silly ruminations for today. Caveat emptor.