See your mother put to death, see your mother die

Ruth Marcus has a nice anti-PowerPoint editorial in the Post. I know the arguments for why we should blame the artist, not the tool, but that sounds a little too much like "guns don't kill people, people do." This diabolical bit of software has completely taken over the business world and the government which its insipid mode of communication. In DC, you can drive an entire career on one or two briefs. People who do especially well are said to "give good brief." Yes, the sexual allusion is appropriate, because you get stuck in a long one, and you are fucked.

Marcus reports that younger and younger school children are being taught to use PowerPoint. Little by little the mother tongue is being worn away. It wasn't that long ago that school kids were expected to compose poems, and now they can sound like corporate drones. Yes, I am bitter.