We Positive Money
supporters in the North East of England are a talented lot. Me in particular,
of course. But there's also Gillian Swanson. Below is Gillian's variation on
William Wordsworth's poem "I wandered lonely as a cloud", followed by
Gillian's cynical definition of various fashionable Weasel words.
I wandered, gloomy, sad and
bowed,
From store to store, by Sales, by
tills,
And thought, all sweaty in the
crowd,
How little Christmas shopping
thrills:
With feet than ache and wobbly
knees -
Oh! but this season is a tease!
Continuous as the lights that
shine
And twinkle down the streets
today,
They stretched in never-ending
line
To have their goods wrapped up
and pay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance
Staring ahead, as if in trance.
The tills beside them rang, as
they
Out-did the Jones’s shopping
spree:
The old, the young, the straight,
the gay,
All spendthrift flocked in
company,
While, dazed and fazed, I little
bought:
What wealth I had too soon fell
short.
And now, as on the couch I lie
With vacant purse, in pensive
mood,
I wonder at that dash to buy,
At how each docile wally queued:
For when they start to measure
bills,
Finances bust, they’ll curse the
tills.
Weasel words and phrases.
“Centres of excellence”: establishment-approved set-ups.
“Best practice”: establishment-approved ways of doing
things.
“Stakeholders”: carefully chosen special-interest groups
courted and flattered into the belief that they are helping the powerful to
shape policy.
“Civil society”: members of any special interest groups
considered important/amenable enough to be “stakeholders”)
“Governance”: the replacement of representative government
with techniques that steer tame “stakeholders” along pre-determined paths
towards a desired outcome.
“Consultation”: the process by which “stakeholders” are
fooled into believing that they actually wanted to go down those paths anyway.
“Facilitator”: the stooge trained in group dynamics who
makes sure the “consultation process” doesn’t go astray.
“Consensus”: the apparent unanimity resulting from the
elimination of opposition by a skilled “facilitator”.
"Participatory democracy”: the side-lining and
ostracism of dissenting majorities and minorities by systematically excluding
them from participation in “civil society” and “the consultation process”.
"Networking": collusion among “stakeholders” in
pursuit of their own interests, without regard for those barred from
participation in “participatory democracy”.
“Opinion-formers”: the supra-national political and academic
establishment, plus influential “stakeholders” who have achieved “consensus”
via corruption or the “consultation process”.
“Law-makers”: an up-and-coming term, increasingly used as a
synonym for representatives, heaven help us!
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