If your job involves attending the odd meeting once in a while, you’ll be quite familiar with my topic of today. Lately it seems conversations in meetings are filled with nothing but clichés.
For instance. You’ll suggest a valuable addition to a proposal and the chair might say: Thank you. This is, of course, a work in progress. And you’ll be quiet again. Mind you, they did not say, Thank you. You are right. We will do that too. No, they managed to shut you up, without any guarantee that your suggestion will be implemented in the proposal.
This is an example of the use of what psychologists call a thought-terminating cliché - or Totschlagargument as our German friends put it - a commonly used phrase, used to quell disagreement. Though the phrase in itself may be valid in certain contexts, its application as a means of dismissing dissent or justifying fallacious logic is what makes it thought-terminating. The notion was suggested by Robert Lifton, a professor of psychology, in his book Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of "Brainwashing" in China from the 50s.
If you browse the net a bit, or just pay attention in dialogue all around you, you’ll be shocked to discover how many such thought-terminating clichés are in vogue. On this website, I found some very good ones, such as:
Only just now, I’m shocked to discover that I probably use the last one several times a day!
But the best one is nowhere to be found. I didn’t come up with it myself (yes, I’m a bit lazy today), it’s courtesy of one Adam Carolla, an American comedian I really have to blog about one day soon.
His favourite thought-terminating cliché is simply…
Yeah, but still…
Just try it in your next meeting. When someone states an opinion you disagree with, just reply with an uninterested Yeah, but still…. It will always work.
Come to think of it, I can only hope no one who will be attending my lecture on Friday reads this blog! Just imagine the discussion afterwards:
Fred: I do think the functionalist approach works better than the philological one.
random dude: Yeah, but still.
Fred: Of course, this is a work in progress.
random dude: Yeah, but still.
Fred: ...and everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
random dude: Yeah, but still.
Fred: Meh
random dude: Yeah, but still.
Fred: Meh
…
(the sound of the audience leaving the room)
For instance. You’ll suggest a valuable addition to a proposal and the chair might say: Thank you. This is, of course, a work in progress. And you’ll be quiet again. Mind you, they did not say, Thank you. You are right. We will do that too. No, they managed to shut you up, without any guarantee that your suggestion will be implemented in the proposal.
This is an example of the use of what psychologists call a thought-terminating cliché - or Totschlagargument as our German friends put it - a commonly used phrase, used to quell disagreement. Though the phrase in itself may be valid in certain contexts, its application as a means of dismissing dissent or justifying fallacious logic is what makes it thought-terminating. The notion was suggested by Robert Lifton, a professor of psychology, in his book Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of "Brainwashing" in China from the 50s.
If you browse the net a bit, or just pay attention in dialogue all around you, you’ll be shocked to discover how many such thought-terminating clichés are in vogue. On this website, I found some very good ones, such as:
That’s a no-brainer.
You don’t always get what you want.
What goes around comes around.
You win some, you lose some.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
It’s just common sense.
Easy come, easy go.
That’s life.
It is what it is.
Whatever.
Meh.
Only just now, I’m shocked to discover that I probably use the last one several times a day!
But the best one is nowhere to be found. I didn’t come up with it myself (yes, I’m a bit lazy today), it’s courtesy of one Adam Carolla, an American comedian I really have to blog about one day soon.
His favourite thought-terminating cliché is simply…
Yeah, but still…
Just try it in your next meeting. When someone states an opinion you disagree with, just reply with an uninterested Yeah, but still…. It will always work.
Come to think of it, I can only hope no one who will be attending my lecture on Friday reads this blog! Just imagine the discussion afterwards:
Fred: I do think the functionalist approach works better than the philological one.
random dude: Yeah, but still.
Fred: Of course, this is a work in progress.
random dude: Yeah, but still.
Fred: ...and everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
random dude: Yeah, but still.
Fred: Meh
random dude: Yeah, but still.
Fred: Meh
…
(the sound of the audience leaving the room)
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