On December 15, Dictionary.com selected “hallucinate” as its Word of the Year 2023.  It is not the word I would have chosen, even considering their focus on hallucination’s relevance to artificial intelligence.  Below is the official announcement.

The definition strikes me as an inaccurate description of both “hallucinating” and “artificial intelligence.”  If they intended to show how information can be mangled, or even corrupted, to make a non-factual observation, based on their own definitions, a better choice would have been the following.

CONTEXT

noun

If we learned anything at all during this off-year political conversation, it is the adage “context is everything” no longer applies.  Today, the more apt lesson is, “If you need context to explain any declaration, you have already lost the argument.”  Just ask the presidents of Harvard, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania.

I should have learned this lesson in 1978, when, as director of development planning at the Maryland Department of Economic and Community Development, my team drafted a development policy agenda titled, “A Five-Part Strategy for the Maryland Marketplace.”  The tag line?  “Maryland, Close to What Counts.”  The document laid out the context for this phrase including the state’s proximity to every major East Coast population center, the Nation’s capital, its shipping access via the Chesapeake Bay and the port of Baltimore, etc.  Within weeks, the Delaware economic development agency launched a new campaign.  “Delaware, What Counts.”  They might as well have added, “Maryland, Close but No Cigar!”

While I hopefully did not continue to make that same mistake, others have been less fortunate.  During the 2023 election cycle, voters in Ohio, Kentucky and Virginia told the GOP leadership and pro-life advocates, “If you have to explain why government should intervene in decisions about reproductive health, take your message elsewhere.”  In contrast, Kentucky governor Andy Beshear, a Democrat in a deep red state, won re-election based on a campaign ad in which the now 21 year-old victim asks, “Should a 12 year-old, who has been raped by her stepfather, have to bring his baby to term?”  Game, set, match.  No context needed.

Wednesday night, Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley, at a rally in New Hampshire, ripped the award for “worst answer of the year” from the hands of the three university presidents who wilted during the House Education Committee hearing on anti-Semitism on college campuses.  When asked, “What caused the American Civil War,” she pontificated about the role of government, individual freedom and capitalism.  She did not mention the word “slavery,” to which the questioner replied, “In the year 2023, it’s astonishing to me that you answer that question without mentioning the word slavery.”  In the video you see Haley hesitate, wondering how to put her response in context.  Lesson #2.  Do not expect, much less ask, those who disagree with you to provide the context in which to explain your position.  Haley responded, “What do you want me to say about slavery?”  In other words, in what context do you want or expect me to talk about slavery?  This response was so ludicrous even Ron DeSantis accused her of trying to whitewash history (after which he vanished in a puff of irony).

Politics and academia are not the sole arenas in which context is used to mask the more obvious reason for any action.  During the holidays, my son-in-law gave me a book by Bruce Schoenfeld titled Game of Edges.  The subtitle reads, “The Analytics Revolution and the Future of Professional Sports.”  A central theme focuses on team ownership and how it has morphed from a hobby of the rich and famous into the most successful investment in their portfolios.  The gift’s relevance was affirmed when the Los Angeles Dodgers spent over one billion dollars to sign two players:  Shohei Ohtani ($750 million over ten years) and Yoshinobu Yamamoto ($325 million over 12 years).

It begs the obvious question about return on this record breaking outlay.  “Will their presence on the Dodgers’ roster generate enough revenue to justify their inflated salaries?”  Sports journalists provided an array of answers about TV contracts, merchandise royalties and income from other activities associated with the team.  Although, I doubt Nobel laureate John Nash could calculate how many #17 and #18 jerseys (Ohtani and Yamamoto, respectively) you need to sell to raise a billion dollars. Schoenfeld suggests such financial gymnastics are unnecessary.  There is a simple answer.  Guggenheim Baseball Management (GBM), headed by majority owner Mark Walter, purchased the Dodgers in 2011 for $2.15 billion dollars.  If sold today, the buyers would pay an estimated minimum of $4.25 billion.  GBM and Walter would recover their investment with a billion dollars to spare.

As we approach 2024, the question for the Biden campaign is whether they have learned the lesson.  Yes, Bidenomics has been successful.  The post-pandemic American economy is the envy of the industrialized world.  Lower inflation.  Higher GDP.  Most job growth in a presidential term.  Increasing consumer confidence.  Inflation reduced by 67 percent without a recession. But that requires context and a longer attention span than most voters have.  You know what does not.  A box score on any sports web site or on the sports pages of any newspaper.  You immediately know which team won and why.  Therefore I suggest the Biden campaign start purchasing billboards across the country with a series of box scores.  Here are two examples.

21st Century Recessions

21st Century Job Creation (in millions)

Let the GOP fumble with the context.

POSTSCRIPT: 2024 Word of the Year

Will journalists, academics and politicians continue to invoke the word “context” in the coming year?  I, for one, hope so.  Although it may take on new significance, requiring  one more definitional variation.

CONTEXT

noun

~a Donald Trump post on social media.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP