Performative Perfomance Ⅰ: Performative Intellectualism
I started noticing it in meetings. Not the agenda. Not the coffee. Not even the unnecessary icebreakers. The way people speak. Everyone sounds like a press release now. Smooth. Neutral. Over-rehearsed. Sentences that begin confidently and end without saying anything at all. You leave the room unsure what was decided but very aware that everyone “contributed.” We are not thinking more. We are sounding smarter. There is a difference. It took me a while to name it. Performative intellectualism. I noticed it first in corporate spaces. Meeting rooms where nothing is said beautifully. Decks filled with words like "leverage," "optimize," "synergy," "ideation," and "value alignment," language so polished it reflects your face back to you but tells you nothing about where the company is actually going. People don’t argue. They “add perspective.” They don’t disagree. They “offer nuance.” They don’t admit they’re lost. They say, “Let’s take thi...
