Twentieth-century German philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) posits that language is a poison that can be used to seduce, mislead and bewitch. Language is a form of hypnotism; it can “put us to sleep” and make us believe what we are seeing and hearing is true. In the witty Between You and I: A Little Book of Bad English (2003), James Cochrane argues that “the present political chaos is connected with the decay of language,” and that “political language … is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidarity to pure wind” (154). Both men agree that language is a tool of manipulation. It becomes clear very few of us are aware of this fact going from day to day when we begin to question the platitudes we dispense without a second thought: “Your effort is much appreciated,” “You’re welcome,” “It’ll be dealt with in due course,” “Any inconvenience caused is much regretted,” “Efforts will be made to rectify the mistake,” “...