I have a new reading rule. If I bend back the bind of a non-fiction book, read ten pages, and fail to find even one whisper of a tie back to a real world concern, I shelve it.
It’s hard to devote time to all the right phrases: institutional (a wobbly word itself), intangible, synergies, norms, soft infrastructure, R&D, yahdi yah. And not one practical eample. The use of so many imperative phrases and descriptions aimed at thin air calls into question where all that is being described is professed to reside. Because if the authors are finding it difficult to relate instances back to the world we live in, then what they writing is a work of science fiction.
HG Wells, Jules Verne and LeGuin all provided keen insights into what is to come. Science fiction is a popular and well read genre. I suggest these policy types devote their efforts in this manner as well. Once they find they are writing on air, they just need to conjur up a little fantasy destination and some sympathetic characters. People love a good story.
Look at how CS Lweis drew everybody into The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe without anyone realizing they were being taught a thing or two about Christianity.
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