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).