Black Magic Doubletalk: Don't Let It Charm You

Doubletalk. It's everywhere. There's so much official doubletalk, you need a guide to understand what they're really saying:


?D?j? Vu Doubletalk: This is doubletalk which attempts to present as new that which already has been going on for a long time.


We found the following headline about a recent Kremlin economic conference: Yel'tsin prizyvayet k sozdaniyu predposylok dlya vosstanovleniya i podyoma ekonomiki ("Yeltsin calls for the creation of the preconditions for the resurgence and growth of the economy"). Haven't we heard that before? Or rather, if it wasn't creating those preconditions, then what have they been doing all this time? Incidentally, beware the word predposylki ("preconditions"). It is usually a tip-off that whatever you're hearing is doubletalk.


?Five-Year-Plan Doubletalk: This is doubletalk that includes specific phrases to create the impression that something meaningful has been said.


For example, Yeltsin also told the economic conference that the country was on the verge of novy etap razvitiya rossiiskikh reform ("a new stage of the development of Russian reforms"). He didn't really say how the "new" stage would be any different than the old one, but was evidently hoping that the excitement caused by his announcement would allow people to overlook that minor nuisance.


Official agencies routinely come out with declarations of how they are "picking up the pace of their work" (aktiviziruyet svoyu rabotu). Strangely, they never seem to slow down. Which makes it surprising that they so rarely collide with something.


?Running Dog Doubletalk: Actually, every society's politicians need to fall back on this device now and then. The speaker uses many words but never says what is actually happening. A fresh example would be the announcement by Yeltsin's outgoing press secretary, Vyacheslav Kostikov, after the president's Thursday deadline for Chechnya to lay down its arms passed uneventfully.


Nachal osushchestvlyatsya kompleks mer po vosstanovleniyu konstitutsionnogo poryadka Chechni, Kostikov assured us. "A complex of measures for the reestablishment of the constitutional order of Chechnya has begun." Which measures, and how they have begun, Kostikov didn't say. But he had to say something and we respect that.


?Black Magic Doubletalk: This is doubletalk that actually does something. Seemingly meaningless phrases are used to make sure that the right buttons are pushed. Our favorite example is vopros rasmotren v ustanovlennom poryadke ("the question has been reviewed under the established order"). Leave this phrase off certain documents and they become worthless pieces of paper. Write it in, and presto, change-o: You could almost call it a precondition.