Overused Phrases Thrown Under The Bus
Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie has published a list of 19 overused phrases. Sweet. Apparently the top 19 is the new top 10. 19 seems a little random, but perhaps there has been a surge of clichés in the post-9/11 world. It’s a perfect storm of wordsmiths taking on the establishment. It seems like the organic thing to do would be to host an emotional webinar on the subject, so more people can add a little pop to their language by decimating their poor language use. It’s a nice way for academia to give back to the community. Back in the day, people were better at avoiding clichés. No so much anymore. What are you going to do? It is what it is.
Seriously, the problem with clichés is that they serve to terminate thought, providing a stopping point for a thread of thought that may venture too close to a cognitive dissonance. Consider, for example, the phrase “post-9/11.” Supposedly “everything” changed with 9/11. Terminating thinking at this point avoids comparisons of various alternatives, because the listener implicitly accepts that because everything changed, his or her instincts and formerly held beliefs are no longer up to the task of assessing policy or responses to events.