ABSTRACT
Observations of social primates illustrate that they are able to order their society very well without having to use words as we understand them. But much more than that is required of business executives and technocrats in sophisticated industrial societies. Culture arose out of man's social drives, which were essential to avoid situations in which individuals were at war with everyone else. Communication is a vehicle for ideas, and words are fuelled by them, the ideas themselves can be ambiguous or purposely misleading. Content and treatment are precisely what a business executive must manage: their technology is relatively unimportant. They must manage words better than the popular media, because their communications involve them in more sober spheres of influence which they are obliged to address in a more responsible fashion. The difference between words and actions is like the chasm between theory and practice.
