This rhetorical padding is used by countless politicians and, it seems, nearly everyone interviewed or quoted in the news, from President Obama on down:
“…going forward…”
and its variant,
“…moving forward…”
Take it out of virtually any sentence and you will lose no meaning. Example:
“The administration will keep a close watch on this, moving forward.”
Getting rid of “moving forward;” now, that would be moving forward.
Of course, properly used, the phrase can be a source of inspiration…or amusement.
If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself—
Henry Ford
Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward; they may be beaten, but they may start a winning game—
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
We will move forward, we will move upward, and yes, we will move onward—
Dan Quayle
Thought you might enjoy these Carlinisms!
So, moving one-word and up-word, maybe we could substitute the ever-more-highly-falutin’ term “excelsior,” but warped into a verb—to wit: “The administration will keep a close watch on this, excelsioring” and “We will excelsior, we will excelsior, and yes, we will excelsior.” That oughta level the playing field for any quayle caught between barak and a hard word… nest, Pa?
A man who made a lifetime study of the genre was Brian O’Nolan/Flann O’Brien/Myles NaGopalleen, creator of the Catechism of Cliché.
(For an introduction to The Catechism of Cliché, go here:
http://grammar.about.com/b/2008/10/01/the-myles-na-gopaleen-catechism-of-cliche.htm
—DR)
Spare a thought for we poor folk down under. Our shiny-new lady Prime Minister who is racing to an election has adopted ‘Moving Forward” as her election slogan.
So we can expect to hear it endlessly.
Presumably, it is seen as preferable to moving to the left or right or even standing in one place jumping up and down.
How about “call out” = as in “criticize, trash, rebuke, animadvert…” ?
I think your “going forward” etc. was first a particular favorite of the Sub-Prime Financier Goon Squad and then the politicians with whom they “pay to play” (another boring bromide).