Optical Illusions

Shortly before he died, William Safire predicted "optics" would become one of the next great political buzzwords, writes Ben Zimmer in the New York Times (3/6/10). His vision was accurate, apparently, mainly because the word "puts a new spin on things, giving a scientific-sounding gloss to P.R. and image-making." This is not unlike what "content" has done for journalism and news-making. One of the best, most recent examples of optical spin was a widely-disseminated quote from Republican strategist Kevin Madden.

While commenting on President Obama’s vacation in Hawaii when the failed airliner bombing occurred, Kevin said, "I think those images, the optics, hurt President Obama very badly." On the flipside, about a month later, Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee, had to answer questions about the "optics" of the Republicans holding their winter meeting "at a beachfront resort in Waikiki." Who’d have ever guessed that Hawaii would make bad optics?

Using "optics" in this context actually dates back as far as 1978, when Robert Strauss, an advisor to President Carter, said that inviting business leaders to the White House "would be a nice optical step." The term later became popular in Canada, likely because bilingual Canadians were familiar with the French term, "optique," which "can refer to the science of optics or it can mean ‘perspective or point of view.’" Optical popularity is now spreading to America, bringing with it an attractive association with technology and "an aura of brainy precision."