Fnord wrote:
Ambiguity absolves responsibility. By being vague, a person can claim that they did not mean what you think they did. Thus, if a supervisor says, "Maybe someone could pick up the trash in the parking-lot", and you are the only other person in the room, then:
• If you stay where you are, and do your assigned job, then you can be dismissed for not following an order to clean the parking lot.
• If you clean the parking lot, then you can be dismissed for not doing your assigned job.
• If you do both, then the supervisor takes the credit, and dumps more such vague assignments on you until you screw something up.
Eventually, you -- the poor, hard-working aspie -- gets dismissed.
Win-win, for the employer; and lose-lose for you.
This is an example of ambiguity absolving responsibility, for sure. It
can do that. But it doesn't
always do that. And that's the problem, and the beauty, of communication.
Ambiguity can also be intriguing, mysterious, compelling and exciting and many other things. Ambiguity allows us to consider that one thing may be two things until we have further information - quantum thinking! That's what I mean about the three-dimensionality of it, the meaning isn't just in the words.
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