Words never die
The beauty of the oral and written traditions is that they keep alive words and phrases from generation to generation. In this manner, wisdom is passed from father to son, mother to daughter, grandparent to grandchild.
So what the hell are we supposed to do when phrases from our modern culture should die?
There are dozens of trite, hackneyed phrases that were poignant when they first appeared but through overuse by lazy writers, political pundits, or hopelessly-uncool-people-trying-to-sound-hip, they begin to sound like nothing more than ground glass filtered through a sand-filled ear canal on it's way to the brain.
You know what these are. There are hundreds of examples of these we hear every day. "Where's the Beef!" "You go, Girl!" "Think outside the box." They are the result of intellectual retardation and the utter inability or unwillingness to thoughtfully craft the words we use to express our complex thoughts and feelings.
Of course, for a large portion of the population with whom we come in regular contact, "complex thoughts" may be overstating things by a factor of 100 or so.
But I digress...
I am officially adding a phrase to the list of phrases I hope to hear, nevermore: "It is what it is."
When first uttered, this phrase seemed to capture the essence of what an old boss of mine used to call, "a blinding flash of the obvious." Intended to communicate an acceptance of a current situation as being exactly what it appeared and indicate a resignation to the fact that nothing could be done to change it, hence we might as well figure out where to go from here.
Notwithstanding the flawed premise that a situation cannot be changed ("It is what it is" is commonly uttered by ineffectual middle managers to shove some crap situation down the throats of their subordinates when they're too lazy or frightened to challenge their bosses to better a situation and by parking-lot-mud-puddle deep modern day philosophers to indicate they're powerless to change the fact that the local Greek place is out of Tzatziki), the phrase itself has become overworn, threadbare, and devoid of any thought whatsoever. The thinking (being gracious) being that this profound-sounding phrase will so succinctly and effectively sum up a situation when, in fact, it makes the utterer sound vapid, shallow, and completely devoid of the capacity to think or speak like big people.
In addition, given that the phrase adds nothing whatsoever to a discussion, it has become little more than a verbalized pause, the modern day equivalent of "um," "...and so forth," and "whatnot." It is empty noise in a world crying out for not only relevant sounds but also for meaningful silence.
So, as a public service, I will render forth a replacement for this trite, overused phrase. In its place, we shall collectively henceforth say, "Hot is hot." This, too, is a blinding flash of the obvious and indicates there's not a damn thing anyone can do about a situation but it also adds a touch of "duh!" to the equation. "Of course 'hot is hot,' dumbass!" you will hear. Which is kind of the point. Of course, so is "it is what it is," both logically and mathematically (x=x). But "hot is hot" will point out the absurdity of the sentiment entirely.
I understand that my little rant awash in the vast sea of banality that is the internet will likely a) never see the light of day, or b) have any impact whatsoever. But I cannot sit idly by as my children and my children's children are swept away by the vapidity of the intellectual micro-midgets of our time. My Quixotic (and E.B. White-ian) quest to rid the world of needless words will fall, sadly, on deaf ears and we'll collectively become stupider each time we hear this phrase.
Oh, well...what can I do? After all, hot is hot...
So what the hell are we supposed to do when phrases from our modern culture should die?
There are dozens of trite, hackneyed phrases that were poignant when they first appeared but through overuse by lazy writers, political pundits, or hopelessly-uncool-people-trying-to-sound-hip, they begin to sound like nothing more than ground glass filtered through a sand-filled ear canal on it's way to the brain.
You know what these are. There are hundreds of examples of these we hear every day. "Where's the Beef!" "You go, Girl!" "Think outside the box." They are the result of intellectual retardation and the utter inability or unwillingness to thoughtfully craft the words we use to express our complex thoughts and feelings.
Of course, for a large portion of the population with whom we come in regular contact, "complex thoughts" may be overstating things by a factor of 100 or so.
But I digress...
I am officially adding a phrase to the list of phrases I hope to hear, nevermore: "It is what it is."
When first uttered, this phrase seemed to capture the essence of what an old boss of mine used to call, "a blinding flash of the obvious." Intended to communicate an acceptance of a current situation as being exactly what it appeared and indicate a resignation to the fact that nothing could be done to change it, hence we might as well figure out where to go from here.
Notwithstanding the flawed premise that a situation cannot be changed ("It is what it is" is commonly uttered by ineffectual middle managers to shove some crap situation down the throats of their subordinates when they're too lazy or frightened to challenge their bosses to better a situation and by parking-lot-mud-puddle deep modern day philosophers to indicate they're powerless to change the fact that the local Greek place is out of Tzatziki), the phrase itself has become overworn, threadbare, and devoid of any thought whatsoever. The thinking (being gracious) being that this profound-sounding phrase will so succinctly and effectively sum up a situation when, in fact, it makes the utterer sound vapid, shallow, and completely devoid of the capacity to think or speak like big people.
In addition, given that the phrase adds nothing whatsoever to a discussion, it has become little more than a verbalized pause, the modern day equivalent of "um," "...and so forth," and "whatnot." It is empty noise in a world crying out for not only relevant sounds but also for meaningful silence.
So, as a public service, I will render forth a replacement for this trite, overused phrase. In its place, we shall collectively henceforth say, "Hot is hot." This, too, is a blinding flash of the obvious and indicates there's not a damn thing anyone can do about a situation but it also adds a touch of "duh!" to the equation. "Of course 'hot is hot,' dumbass!" you will hear. Which is kind of the point. Of course, so is "it is what it is," both logically and mathematically (x=x). But "hot is hot" will point out the absurdity of the sentiment entirely.
I understand that my little rant awash in the vast sea of banality that is the internet will likely a) never see the light of day, or b) have any impact whatsoever. But I cannot sit idly by as my children and my children's children are swept away by the vapidity of the intellectual micro-midgets of our time. My Quixotic (and E.B. White-ian) quest to rid the world of needless words will fall, sadly, on deaf ears and we'll collectively become stupider each time we hear this phrase.
Oh, well...what can I do? After all, hot is hot...
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