It has become a habit to state the obvious but to use inflated phrases that seem to carry a heavy burden of meaning, when what we are really saying is quite simple. Sometimes our message may be so trite that it has to be wrapped up in verbiage to disguise itself. We are awash in words, whether on paper or on the Internet. More and more people feel the need to keep more and more records. And records are all too often written in an unnecessarily wordy fashion. We’ve all seen examples. “At this point in time, during our extended organizational restructuring, it is anticipated that some of our valued associates will be encouraged to find alternative employment.” Or “Sorry, buddy, we’ve just scrapped your job.”

Sometimes this language is used as deliberate deception to cover up a lack of action or planning, or an unpopular action. It is possible even to hide dishonest and disreputable actions.

Often the language is used to impress. James Lichtenberg conducted a study^{Footnote 1} in which a Dr. Fox (a fictitious name) presented a one-hour lecture that was complete garbage (double talk, meaningless words, false logic, and contradictions). The audience (highly educated social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, educators and administrators) filled out a questionnaire following the lecture, in which they claimed to have found the lecture clear and stimulating. It was a case of the Emperor’s new clothes, with nobody wanting to be the first to say anything.

Political bafflegab
The use of bafflegab and gobbledegook are the reasons politicians have earned such a poor reputation. Some of them are undoubtedly honest, but there has been a growing cynicism about them all.

Gobbledygook may indicate a failure to think clearly, a contempt for one’s clients, or more probably a mixture of both. A system that can’t or won’t communicate is not a safe basis for a democracy.
—Michael Shanks (former chair, National Consumer Council, UK)

Accounting irregularities is an expression that can fit under both politics and business. Either way, it usually means fraud or embezzlement.

Alan Greenspan, until recently the head of the US Federal Reserve Board, took incoherent mumble-speak to a high level in order to speak about sensitive topics without causing markets to overreact. In a speech to a Senate committee in 1987, he said, “Since becoming a central banker, I have learned to mumble with great incoherence. If I seem unduly clear to you, you must have misunderstood what I said.”^{Footnote 2}

Business bafflegab
Some of the bafflegab habit has arisen from business. All the expressions used for laying someone off—for example, downsizing, right-sizing and resource rebalancing—remove us from any connection with humans out of work, so that it is easier not to feel indignation or sympathy. It sounds as if some neutral, unavoidable force has somehow done the deed.