Critical Response: Examining Margaret Wente's Public Language Decline

This essay provides a critical response to Margaret Wente's column, "The Decline of Public Language." The essay begins with an introduction to Wente and her perspective on the importance of public language, which she believes is being negatively influenced by market-driven language. The summary section outlines Wente's main arguments, including her view that public language should be characterized by values like love, emotion, hope, and change, and her critique of the language used in various sectors such as sports, politics, and management. The critique section offers an analysis of Wente's arguments, acknowledging her points while also offering some counterpoints. The essay agrees with Wente's concerns about the loss of genuine communication in public discourse. The conclusion reiterates Wente's key points and emphasizes the importance of language in expressing values. The essay argues that while Wente's perspective is valuable, the essay also acknowledges the value of leadership and the importance of clear communication, and the essay concludes by recognizing Wente's writing prowess and the significance of her ideas on public language.

Running head: CRITICAL RESPONSE: THE DECLINE OF PUBLIC LANGUAGE 1
Critical Response: The Decline of Public Language
Name
Institution

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Introduction
Wente’s discusses the importance of the public language. She goes against the views of
many people and argues that public language has a deeper meaning that it can be seen from the
face value point of view. Margaret Wente is a writer and one of the leading Canadian columnists.
Her writing is mainly focused on social, education and health care issues (Globe and Mail,
2018). In the column “The Decline of Public Language” Wente states that the language of the
market is influencing public language. From Wente’s perspective, public language is an essential
tool and therefore, it should be characterized by specific values like love, emotion, hope and
show the possibility for change.
Summary
Wente presents language as the usual conversation between individuals in public. She
mentions a hockey player in the studio who is referring to the game as a product. Secondly, she
sees citizens as clients even in the political sphere. Wente also talks of management speak where
everyone appears to like to be in a homeless shelter since charitable organizations, museums
universities and hospitals do not have a strategic plan, vision or vision. According to Wente,
people in the civil service depend on the management speak since they have to assure their
shareholders they are operating on a business-like a model. At this point, the author strives to
show how ambitions, plans, and visions are influenced and progressed by leading Canada’s
outstanding personalities in communication, business, politics, and science.
Wente judges that public language is a conversation between people “It is a language for
formal conversation between people in public” (p. 31). As a conversation, the language should
encompass aspects like love, emotion, hope, and change. In using love and emotion in the public
language, Wente seems to show that a good public language should possess the attributes of care,

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which means that speakers should be seen expressing love to the audience. As such, the language
cannot be used for the sake of just passing information to the audience. On the same light, the
author has also embraced the concept of hope and change. In this context, the author might be
seen referring to the politicians whose language is full of fake promises. As such, the language
cannot be said to possess the real expectations of the public. In cementing her support for the
aspects of love, emotion, love, and change in the public, Wente said, "Words matter more than
we think. We need them to express our deepest values (p.31).
Critique
Wente shows how the relentless commitment of people is one of their greatest strengths,
but when they lack the needed dedication, they will always live under the control of the outgoing
and elite in society. As much as Wente appears to discredit the contribution of the enlightened in
the society, it is important to note that they form the leadership of the nation and as a result, they
are entitled to speak on behalf of the citizens. Despite, the rebuttal on her stance; this paper
agrees on her argument that the upper class uses cliché orchestrated vocabulary in the managerial
context to rob people a good public language that is characterized by gravity and elegance. As a
result, there has been a loss of love, emotion, hope, and change. In concluding her stance on
public language, Wente notes that words have essential meaning that the wider majority assumes
them. She goes ahead by arguing that people need words to express their deepest values, and as
such the choice of public language in any particular context is fundamental.
Conclusion
It is apparent that Wente is a great writer. He succinctly brings out the main concepts that
should be embraced in the public language. However, she has failed by discrediting the political
and business classes for speaking on behalf of the people they lead.

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References
Globe and Mail. (2018). Margaret Wente. Retrieved from
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/authors/margaret-wente/