I hate Platitudes and I hate people who use them. If the world could be solved with platitudes, it would be a very different place. Most of them are senseless societal phrases that nobody ever bothers to challenge. Here are a few of my favorites:
"Just keep thinking good thoughts, and good things will happen"
Ah, this is my personal favorite. By psychiatric terms, people who believe that the thoughts inside their own head can effect the outside world are by definition suffering from psychosis. Just imagine if life was so simple - I'll plant some happy thoughts in my head about getting a ton of new clients, and wa-la, there they come - all because I thought positive thoughts.
"You should be happy - you have two arms and two legs"
Well, I'll be darned, I have all the parts that biology told me I should have - and that is supposed to make me feel good about myself. That of course begs the question - what if you have only one arm and two legs? Are you allowed to feel bad then? Or are you only allowed to have any self sympathy if you are limbless trunk? Or maybe only if you are a limbless trunk with leprosy.
"God will make everything work out"
Ever notice that contradiction in that one? When something good happens, its because the great benevolent God is on our side and dictated that it should be that way - because the world is determined by Him. When something bad happens, its because we were given free will.
I remember talking to a religious person after 9/11, and asking them why god allowed such an enormity to happen. Their response: "it wasn't god, it was the devil - god can not control him". Of course it was the devil, and God can't control him. Despite the intellectual acuman that goes into that statement, If you recall, it rained - pouring rain during the most important day of the rescue effort. It was the last day that rescuers believed people could be found alive - yet it was a horrible downpour. So not only does God lack control over the devil - but now he can't even control the weather? There of course is always a rationalization in place for that one - It was Gods tears falling from heaven. You just have to wonder why he couldn't have let his tears fall in Cleveland or some other place far from the rescue effort.
