What phrase that one hears from time to time in the cliche/aphorism/bumper stick category do you think is the most utterly and completely false? (Let’s leave out politics and religion here and stick to general life advice/commentary.)
My vote is “Whoever said ‘winning isn’t everything’ never won anything”. First of all, it’s pretty much 100% guaranteed false on the surface of it. I mean, who never won ANYTHING? Who went through their entire life without ever winning a single game of something at some point at some level? Secondly, I’m quite sure (although I don’t know quite how to verify it) that there are large numbers of high-level winners, people who have achieved massive objective success in any number of fields, who would sincerely agree with the statement ‘winning isn’t everything’. And finally, of course, the philosophy behind the statement in the first place is utterly repugnant. So, it’s a lose/lose/lose.
Other nominations?
Wrong-O. I pay for what the verbal or written contract states. In my experience, I get whatever the provider feels like providing. Whether or not it’s what I paid for is quite often not part of the equation.
Have you ever actually heard someone say that they don’t know why bumblebees can’t fly? It seems rather silly on the surface, since bumblebees can fly and all.
‘‘Every family is dysfunctional.’’ That’s the one I’d like to punch people in the face for cheerfully saying to me when I tell them I have a dysfunctional family. I usually smile and respond, ‘‘So I hear.’’ What I’d really like to say is, ‘‘Oh really? Child abuse, domestic violence, alcoholism, drug addiction, mental illness, rape and suicide are the status quo in your family too? You have no less than 5 known child molesters in the family tree? No? Ok. STFU and stop assuming you’‘get’’ what I’m going through.’’
I know that sounds ranty, but I’ve been meaning to start a thread like this one for a while.
I know we’re attacking optimistic ideas here, but it’s worth noting that optimists are generally more successful, more healthy, more likely to overcome setbacks, and live longer lives than pessimists. So the people more likely to say these things are probably happier and healthier overall.
Sorry if this sounds mean, but the above is not “dysfunctional” it is “disastrous”. When people refer to dysfunctional families, I assume they mean something much less than that. There’s “ideal” (Leave it to Beaver), “well-functioning”, “dysfunctional” (the biggest group I assume), and “disastrous”.
Thats just a poor thought out mis-application of “things could always be worse” which I highly suspect might actually be true a 100 percent of the time.
