"We have been warned. From Orwell to Brodsky ("evil is a bad stylist"), we have been put on guard: when words lose their integrity, democracy corrodes. Vita Matiss asks us to pay attention to the language used by politicians, bankers, bureaucrats and ordinary citizens today: is anyone actually saying something, or are words being used to give the "appearance of solidity to pure wind"? Is our slide back into an image based culture corrupting our democracies?"