Sunday, April 22, 2012

Cliches as Principle

For his upcoming book The Tyranny of Cliches:  How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas, Jonah Goldberg has a new blog that, as you might have guessed, deals with some of the prevalent cliches that go for high principle.  Here is a good take down of a line that was supposedly said by Einstein:

For instance, one phrase that drives me crazy that we hear from politicians of all stripes is “Einstein defined insanity as ‘doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
First of all does anyone know if he really said that?
Second, this is absurd. You know a better word for “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”?
“Practice.”
Golfers do the same thing over and over again hoping different results. Dart throwers, writers, prostitutes, singers, dancers, musicians, knitters and just about everybody who wants to get better at something repeat the same behavior over and over again. The saying “practice makes perfect” makes a hell of a lot more sense than “practice makes you crazy,” though I suppose practice has driven some people crazy. But you get the point.

I laughed out loud upon reading that one.  Can't wait to get the book.

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