Enough Said: What's Gone Wrong with the Language of Politics?

by Mark Thompson

On This Page

Description

"There's a crisis of trust in politics across the Western world. Public anger is rising and faith in conventional political leaders and parties is falling. Anti-politics, and the anti-politicians, have arrived. In Enough Said, president and CEO of The New York Times Company Mark Thompson argues that one of the most significant causes of the crisis is the way our public language has changed. Enough Said tells the story of how we got from the language of FDR and Churchill to that of Donald show more Trump. It forensically examines the public language we've been left with: compressed, immediate, sometimes brilliantly impactful, but robbed of most of its explanatory power. It studies the rhetoric of Western leaders from Reagan and Thatcher to Berlusconi, Blair, and today's political elites on both sides of the Atlantic. And it charts how a changing public language has interacted with real-world events--the war in Iraq, the financial crash, immigration--and led to a mutual breakdown of trust between politicians and journalists, leaving ordinary citizens suspicious, bitter, and increasingly unwilling to believe anybody. Drawing from classical as well as contemporary examples, and ranging across politics, business, science, technology, and the arts, Enough Said is a smart and shrewd look at the erosion of language by an author uniquely placed to measure its consequences."--Dust jacket. show less

Tags

Recommendations

Member Reviews

2 reviews
I found this book insightful and accurate; Thompson views the decline in the quality of civil discourse through the lens of rhetoric as defined and used by the classical writers, starting with Aristotle. He examines how the medium shapes the rhetoric, if only by cutting recordings of politicians' statements to very short sound bytes, and he discusses some things that the press, the public and the politicians can do to improve the quality of public discourse. None of his proposals are either radical or shockingly innovative, but I'd say we need to consider this book and perhaps act on Thompson's ideas and suggestions.
½
Promised much more than it delivers. From his biographical details and some remarks in the book I would conclude the author to be an upper-class English Catholic.

And Wikipedia confirms the diagnosis. I didn't think much of the book, but I've mentioned it several times when talking with coworkers, so it was hardly negligible.

Members

Recently Added By

Author Information

1 Work 103 Members
Mark Thompson has been the present and CEO of The New York Times Company since 2012. Previously, he was director-general of the BBC from 2004 to 2012, and CEO of Channel 4 Television Corporation from 2002 to 2004. Born in London, Thompson attended Stonyhurst College and Merton College, Oxford. Thompson has three children with his wife, writer Jane show more Blumberg. show less

Awards and Honors

Common Knowledge

Canonical DDC/MDS
320.014
Canonical LCC
P119.3

Classifications

Genres
Nonfiction, Politics and Government, General Nonfiction, Philosophy
DDC/MDS
320.014Society, government, & culturePolitical scienceTypes of GovernmentPolitical Science Philosophy and TheoryCommunication
LCC
P119.3Language and LiteraturePhilology. LinguisticsLanguage. Linguistic theory. Comparative grammar
BISAC

Statistics

Members
105
Popularity
308,233
Reviews
2
Rating
½ (3.63)
Languages
English, Spanish
Media
Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
ISBNs
12
ASINs
3