surely English also has a word or expression for this...

[ratcreature]

I'm wondering what the English equivalent for the German "Aktionismus" is.

In German this is a usually pejorative term to describe activities somebody (often people in a position of power but accountable to the public, more rarely subordinates under pressure from above) undertakes to be visibly seen as "doing something" to address a problem, but the actions are not well thought out, unlikely to really solve or improve the situation, but are (at least from the perspective of the speaker making the charge of something being "Aktionismus") done wholly or partly to provide cover against the accusation of inactivity or indifference.

Like when you hastily implement "security theater" measures against a real security threat, because you can't think of any actual solution to improve security for real, but not doing anything and admitting to having no solution would be politically very costly. Opponents then might accuse you of "Aktionismus".

So "Aktionismus" is a general term for hasty, thoughtless responses of this type, used by opponents of the actions. It is often coupled with "blind" as in "blinder Aktionismus" to emphasize the lack of plan or vision to arrive at a real solution.

It is similar to the accusation that something is merely a "symbolic action" but that implies more a deliberate gesture lacking concrete results, whereas "Aktionismus" is more of a harmful flailing around.

"Aktionismus" has also some sort of specialized meaning for some performance art movement from Vienna, and apparently the word "actionism" exists in English in the translation for that Austrian art, but it doesn't seem to be used in the colloquial sense. But clearly this is a common phenomenon (and accusation) in politics, so there ought to be an English term.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Maybe "smoke & mirrors"

[ratcreature]

Hmm, I understand that to have more of an intentional element of misdirection and deception to it.

I've seen "gesture politics" around in English language news when similar accusations are made, but I'm not certain whether that isn't just another word for symbolic actions, where the main point of criticism is that the action is not doing anything useful, whereas with "Aktionismus" it's not just that nothing is achieved but that harm is being done by hasty and hectic actions that are meant to demonstrate agency.

[st_aurafina]

I think there's a phrase, but of course now I can't think of it - something like 'busy work', maybe? But that's not quite as shady sounding as 'Aktionismus'.

I like 'Aktionismus'- maybe we should adopt it.

[ratcreature]

Yeah, busy work is not quite that. I mean that it is often assigned or forced onto to you, like the typical use is teachers giving extra stuff to children to keep them out of trouble. Whereas "Aktionismus" is for something you came up with yourself (if under external pressure) to at least look capable and active on a matter.

[sulien]

'Grandstanding' is the only word I can think of, but it doesn't convey quite the same meaning. I agree with st_arafina, 'aktionismus' is a great word we could really use these days in the US.

[ratcreature]

Yes it really applies quite often in politics. Mainly I think because admitting to not having a solution or plan ready to implement is politically so costly. You should totally expand its use from the specialized art world meaning and adopt the colloquial use in English too.

[neotoma]

I don't think we have a word that has exactly the same meaning as 'aktionmus', but we'll happily steal it if we don't. English has sticky fingers like that; we just need someone to popularize the use.

[ratcreature]

Well, every language is like that. Though it happens most easily with a wave of influence or exposure to new stuff, hence all the English tech terms adopted everywhere. (Currently I am frequently amused what words Russian pilfered from German, like they use "Butterbrot" for sandwich, and kind of hilariously say "бутерброт с маслом" for a slice of bread with just butter, which is literally what the German word Butterbrot alone already means, so it's like saying "Butterbrot mit Butter" only of course it shifted in meaning a little as they adopted it. Russian has quite a lot of words that come from German, far more than English, though there are a lot that I recognize as English and French too, once you got past the cyrillic transcription.)

[(Anonymous)]

Possibly "song & dance"

[ratcreature]

I thought that was a complaint that somebody is repeating something familiar in a routine manner, like platitudes, as evasion or elaborate excuse rather than giving a real explanation. But I understood this expressions to be about words that deflect responsibility.

[saraht]

English definitely has the concept, just not, I think, a single word. Probably I'd call it "action for its own sake/for the sake of action" or "doing x for appearance's sake" (though that's a little more general).

[ratcreature]

Okay. Thinking some more on this and how news are phrased in the US vs here, just adding a "political" in front of policy actions seems to also have taken on a similar function, to indicate it is not primarily done for use but for political cover. That pejorative use for just the adjective "political" is less common here.