Unintentional Communication

The higher the person's rank, the more fully his unintentional commiseration will be seen and the more elaborately they will be interpreted. The higher his rank, the greater the significance that will be attached to his untended rather than his intended communications. Every body knows that the rules are less important than the ropes. The rules are that the intended communications be very carefully structured. The president's speeches are prepared with the penultimate care given to state documents. The object is to sound a ceremonial note of purpose, dedication, and progress without at the same time saying anything either too specific or too insufficiently promising. His letter in the annual report is so antiseptically conventional that, except for a few numbers, it would be perfectly suitable for the reports of a dozen other companies drawn out of a hat. Those are the rules. Anybody who knows the ropes knows that the trick is to hear what he is not saying that everybody listens so carefully.