When a herd grabs hold of something, odds are that its
original meaning will not only get trampled over, but also in a way that turns
it up-side down before spreading it all over as if it were sweet-smelling
manure. Particularly striking is the ensuing willfulness that typically
contravenes efforts to pen in the herd to the confines of the term’s
definition. I have in mind the erroneous and even tautological
self-aggrandizing trajectory of the term disruption
in the business sector of society. Drawing on Nietzsche, I submit that the
offending sickness is centered in an interlarding presumptuousness to define an
existing word conveniently, even in ways that are antithetical to the received meaning. That is to say, this cultural
problem involves more than garden-variety ignorance.
The full essay has
been incorporated into (or swallowed up by) On
the Arrogance of False Entitlement: A Nietzschean Critique of Business Ethics
and Management, available in print and as an ebook at Amazon.
