Communication, Thursday, Period 5 (Week 6)
Hades was in the classroom when everyone arrived. "Hey, how ya doin? Hades, Lord of the Underworld, God of the Dead, Vice Principal and," the corner of his lip curled up. "Substitute teacher. Today you're going to learn the art of obfuscation. There is nothing in this world - NOTHING - that can be said that can't be confused and twisted to the point where no one understands what the heck you're on about.
Politicians and lawyers do it all the time. If it's not worth being a soundbyte, obfuscate it to the point where people don't care what you do as long as you shut up. Get it? For example, the question could be 'do you agree that the school's security staff is acceptable?'. The answer to that would be 'if you ask me for a straight answer, then I'll say that, as far as I can see, looking at it by and large, taking one thing with another in terms of the average of departments, then in the final analysis it is probably true to say, that at the end of the day, in general terms, you would probably find that, not to put too fine a point on it, there probably wasn't very much in it one way or the other as far as one can see, at this stage.' Huh? Huh? That was a doozy.
Now you try it. Team up. Someone ask a simple question like 'what's your favorite color?' and someone else answer it being as a much of a pain in the rear as possible. Go on. Do it. Don't bother me."
Politicians and lawyers do it all the time. If it's not worth being a soundbyte, obfuscate it to the point where people don't care what you do as long as you shut up. Get it? For example, the question could be 'do you agree that the school's security staff is acceptable?'. The answer to that would be 'if you ask me for a straight answer, then I'll say that, as far as I can see, looking at it by and large, taking one thing with another in terms of the average of departments, then in the final analysis it is probably true to say, that at the end of the day, in general terms, you would probably find that, not to put too fine a point on it, there probably wasn't very much in it one way or the other as far as one can see, at this stage.' Huh? Huh? That was a doozy.
Now you try it. Team up. Someone ask a simple question like 'what's your favorite color?' and someone else answer it being as a much of a pain in the rear as possible. Go on. Do it. Don't bother me."