Equivocation Is a Riddle Wrapped In an Enigma

It’s part nicety and part dishonesty

Equivocation is speaking or writing ambiguously. An equivocal expression is deliberately evasive. In linguistics, they consider equivocation a semantic fallacy.

Equivocation lends itself to over one interpretation. It can mislead, obfuscate, and even exasperate by its lack of clarity. It can be harmful or innocuous depending on who does it in what context.

More often than not we equivocate to avoid offending somebody. How will you answer the question, “Is your boss an excellent leader?”. The context will shape the answer. If the enquirer is a close friend or relative whom you trust, you may tell exactly what you feel about your boss.

If the questioner is a stranger or a colleague, it’s better to equivocate than be forthright. Most would say, “He is not a bad leader”.

Maybe ambiguity is a survival tool. We live as part of collective groups of people. Our survival depends on the goodwill of dominant groups, powerful leaders, caregivers, friends and family members.

Frankness stops being a virtue once it threatens our survival. In the office, nobody gets away by telling the truth about the boss. In the family, spouses quibble to avoid conflicts.

When used as a marketing tool, equivocation can be insidious. Companies try to sell harmful products by concealing their risks. They even make their products appear beneficial through the use of vague and misleading language.

In their book, “Logic and Contemporary Rhetoric”, authors Howard Kahane and Nancy Cavender refer to the sugar industry’s dubious and treacherous twisting of facts to market sugar:

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