What's in a word?

Author : Rob Ashton

Posted : 05 / 02 / 09

Gordon Brown mentioned the word ‘Depression’ for the first time yesterday at Prime Minister’s Questions. Everyone jumped except David Cameron, who apparently failed to notice until it was pointed out to him afterwards.

Apparently there’s no definition of the ‘D-word’, as there’s only ever been one and records from the time are unreliable. But that hasn’t stopped much speculation about whether Gord knows more than he’s letting on. Given his ‘We saved the world’ gaff in December, my guess is it was just a slip of the tongue.

It’s got me thinking though about how loaded words can make millions suspend rational thought.

Annual ‘negative growth’ (shrinking, in other words) of GDP is standing at 2.8 per cent. In the 1990-91 recession it was almost the same (2.5 per cent). Yet most people I’ve spoken to who lived through that one as adults can’t even remember it. A key difference with this latest one is the spectacular way in which it started, generating blanket news coverage. News coverage was also much more limited in the early nineties.

Yet, as Stuart Duff of Pearn Kandola business psychologists says, ‘Irrational language drives irrational thought, which inevitably drives irrational action.’ If you’re in any doubt, read Dan Gardner’s Risk – the science and politics of fear. Seems we’re all less rational than we’d like to think – especially when it comes to language.