The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1959-02-20
JOSEPH BREIG-
Being 'Wordy'
Not Intelligent

berg, assistant professor of education at Catholic
University; and he has done a job that has long
needed doing. In America magazine Dan. - he in
dicted intellectuals for their snobbery with words.
when a man has little to say Nordberg
writes. she is liable to disguise his paucity of ideas
by using mountains of words-especially if he earns
his living on the premises that he knows more than
other people" This, he says, is one reason intellect
uals often 60 to great lengths in cultivating the art
of being unintelligible."
Another reason, Nordberg says, is that stu
dents are encouraged by their professors (heaven
knows whvA to write in a journalistic, pretentious
way" And third: professional journals have scant
leeard ior any body who SIMPLY says what he has to
to say. One professor, noted for clear talking and
can get my stuff published. If | try to make it
clear and ineligible, they don't think it's scholarly"
THIS WoRD-FAKERY, of course, is sheer van
ity. 1t is like a woman using false eyelashes and too
much lipstick and rouge, in the delusion that she is
fooling somebody into mistaking her for a beauty.
She betrays both profound personal insecurity. and
pathetic failure to realize that the time she wastes
on cosmetics could, if intelligently utilized, make her
attractive as a person.
Nordberg tells us that in cultivating the art of
being unintelligible, scholars and scientists use sew
eral methods. They invent new words, when old
words would Go very nicely" Thus, a philosopher
will call understanding positive prehension,' and a
psychologist will say attraction instead of emo
tional release.
kitty can be substituted" Instead of saying that a
man wrote three books on criminoogy," the in
tellectual will write: '"This inspired social scientist
and educator was responsible for the production of
three scholarly works having to do with :" and
so on.
INTELLEcTUALs ALSO take refuge in ques.
tion-begging phrases" Finally, they "say the usual
thing in the usual way, to cover up for absence Of
thought. A student recently confessed that he had
got through four years of philosophy courses by me-
morning definitions
This last abuse produces that distressing creature,
the man or woman who possesses scholarly degrees
but cannot think. These people write nonsense
eruditely; and their eager followers we see all around
us-brightly sociable, filled with words and foolish
ness. They are a menace to the nation because
they are easy prey for literate demagogs and mounte-
banks.
Students, says Nordberg, "often think themsel-
YES obtuse for failing to comprehend this or that au-
thor or lecturer, when the blunt truth is that there
was nothing much there to comprehend"
At this point, Nordberg puts his finger on one
of the most disastrous fruits of unintelligibility:
Those who have Iahored seriously at . 10th CEN
fury Christian syntheshs Of knowledge have found
themselves facing . sefnantie Tower Of Babel. The
eyberniticists talk only TO the nuclear physicists, and
the nueiesr physicists talk only to the cosmos. If the
wovld-be synfhesizer penetrafes beyond this smoke
screen he sometimes finds such a desrth Of definite
ideas as must make the angels weep"
Nordberg does not indiet those who are limited
in communication by the difficulty of a subject, but
rather those who fail to get across what could have
been put across if ones concern had been less to show
off, and more to communicate 49,
Nordberg concludes: NJ
III is a tragedy that in q time when the world
needs so much leadership from its scholars and seien-
for a clarion call and hear only q confusion OF tongues.
Each year or so, the more liberal thinkers seize upon
some new gimmiek. One year 'semantic.' The next
year Creative The year after that 'authoritari-
anism' The intellect can be kept in suspended ami
NATION FOR years at . time"