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Should People Stop Saying “Absolutely” So Much? Absolutely! – A Short Rant...
Archdiocese of Washington ^ | 01-12-15 | Msgr. Charles Pope

Posted on 01/13/2015 8:32:15 AM PST by Salvation

Should People Stop Saying “Absolutely” So Much? Absolutely! – A Short Rant on an Overused Expression and Why it Should be Avoided

By: Msgr. Charles Pope

Nada

One of the most overused terms in modern speech is the word “absolutely.” As in, “Do you want some gravy with those potatoes?” “Absolutely!” Or, “Would you agree that solution ‘X’ is the best solution to problem ‘Y’?”  “Absolutely!” What to call this … an expression? A semantic substitution for “yes?” A logism? A hyperbole? A grandiloquence? A periphrasis? Why this obsession with saying “absolutely” or its strange step-sister, “exactly”?

It is a strange paradox that in an age of relativism, an age that emphasizes personal opinion and subjective feelings over objective truth, so many people substitute for “yes” words like “absolutely,” “exactly,” “precisely,” “positively,” and so forth.

Perhaps we subconsciously seek certainty in an age of uncertainty. Or perhaps, in an age of hypersensitivity, we seek to overemphasize to people that we are “100% on board” with what they have said.

And now you may ask, “Why do you keep saying ‘perhaps’? Are you indicating a lack of certainty in your conclusion?” Absolutely! I have no idea why people use this word so much today. And NOW you ask, “Why do you say you have NO idea? Is it not really the case that you have some idea and that your saying ‘NO idea’ is reflective of the tendency for people to use hyperbole (exaggeration) for emphasis?” Yes! Absolutely! Exactly! So perhaps people are using “absolutely” merely as hyperbole.

Well, as you can see, we humans use a lot of rather excessive and categorical ways of speaking, even while at the same time using qualifiers such as “perhaps” and “sort of.” We are very strange. Which is really (or should I say perhaps) another way of saying that we are somewhat strange.

But, back to “absolutely.” Avoid saying this word for three reasons:

1. It’s getting annoying. I think it has surpassed “you know” and “like” on the annoyance meter. I want you to know that I never use any of these terms.

2. You don’t really mean it. It’s more likely that you just mean “yes” or “I’m generally on board with what you said.” So say what you mean and own it.

3. Even for those of us who do not come from an “everything’s relative” mindset, affirming things “absolutely” is not usually recommended. There’s an old saying (playful in its own way), “Seldom affirm, never deny, always distinguish.” In other words, most statements, positions, views, rules, etc. admit of exceptions, need context, and/or require distinctions. Few things are “absolutely” the case. The road sign at the upper right is not absolutely true. If it were, there would be nothing to indicate, nothing to point at; there would be no next 22 miles at all.

Even commandments like “Thou shalt not kill” require some distinctions and context. Thus, in the commandment, “kill” is used more in the sense of “murder.” For in rare cases, one is able to kill as a last recourse if it is necessary to save one’s own life (self-defense) or the lives of others. Further, “killing” is often distinguished to mean premeditated, intentional killing (first degree murder) and other lesser degrees such as accidental killing due to irresponsibility (manslaughter), etc. So even if someone asks, “So would you agree with me that killing people is wrong?” it should not usually produce the answer, “Absolutely!” or “Exactly!”

Now, there ARE absolute moral norms such as “Never kill the innocent” and “Never blaspheme God.” But most things admit of exceptions (even if rare) and are not in fact “absolute.”

Does my correction seem dangerous to you? Of course it does. But we who live in an age of excessive relativism ought not overreact by insisting that more things are absolute than actually are, or that the only certainty is absolute certainty. Most rules, norms, and teachings do have exceptions and most of what we know has varying degrees of certainty. Most of us who have faith can be most certain about what God has definitively revealed. But even here, simply pulling a quote from the Bible or the Catechism is not enough. We need to understand a given truth or line from the Bible in the context of the whole of revealed truth, which sometimes qualifies, balances, or distinguishes it.

Many today who oppose the moral teachings of Scripture and the Church do this by reducing everything about the Lord to a “God is love” argument, as if the fact that He loves us means He would never say anything that might upset us. And thus one concept from Scripture is absolutized and read without understanding or referring to anything else. Yes, God is love, but He also loves us too much to lie to us. God loves us enough to tell us the truth and, if necessary, to hit us over the head with it.

The bottom line is, avoid saying “absolutely,” though I don’t mean this absolutely. Jesus gets the last word: Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the evil one (Matt 5:37).

Can I get an “Absolutely!”?  err … I mean, can I get an “Amen!”?



TOPICS: Apologetics; Catholic; History; Theology
KEYWORDS: absolutely; catholic; msgrcharlespope; words
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To: Salvation
I absolutely agree with him! :) That word is getting annoying, especially when it's some little bubble headed newsette, who has really no clue what she's talking about.
21 posted on 01/13/2015 8:49:07 AM PST by defconw (If not now, WHEN?)
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To: Salvation

22 posted on 01/13/2015 8:49:23 AM PST by FlJoePa
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To: Salvation

Absotively posolutely!


23 posted on 01/13/2015 8:51:06 AM PST by al_c (Obama's standing in the world has fallen so much that Kenya now claims he was born in America.)
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To: Salvation

Good idea!


No, its a STUPENDOUS idea!

http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/good


24 posted on 01/13/2015 8:51:06 AM PST by cuban leaf (The US will not survive the obama presidency. The world may not either.)
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To: Salvation

It’s AWESOME that somebody is finally speaking up about adjective overuse.


25 posted on 01/13/2015 8:53:07 AM PST by G Larry (Daesh - Obama's future dream for his friends in the Muslim Brotherhood)
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To: Salvation

Too much analysis.

It is just a way of saying an affirmative response.

Also, think about when people ask you “what is going on?” and you say “not much”, even when you are extremely busy. Also when someone says “how are you?” and you say fine, no matter how bad your day is.


26 posted on 01/13/2015 8:56:57 AM PST by Codeflier (Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama - 4 democrat presidents in a row and counting...)
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To: Salvation

The world literally comes to an end when people misuse words like this. It is simply inconceivable that it could continue.


27 posted on 01/13/2015 8:57:11 AM PST by Billthedrill
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To: Salvation

“no problem”


28 posted on 01/13/2015 9:02:09 AM PST by Mercat
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To: Salvation

I agree, saying it is absolute does not mean that it is.

And the other thing I think about in regards to let your yes be yes and your no be no is that when some people get through getting it said you don`t know if they said yes or no.


29 posted on 01/13/2015 9:02:11 AM PST by ravenwolf (s letters scripture.)
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To: Salvation

Absitively posolutely.


30 posted on 01/13/2015 9:05:20 AM PST by Fresh Wind (The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away)
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To: cuban leaf

Dangit. I thought the Thesaurus went extinct at the end of the Cretaceous.


31 posted on 01/13/2015 9:06:36 AM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: Salvation

So when Monsignor Pope hears a confession and forgiveness is asked, are not the penitent’s sins forgiven, wiped away, blotted out, removed absolutely when Msgr. Pope pronounces the ABSOLUTION? Absolutely, they are.


32 posted on 01/13/2015 9:11:20 AM PST by miele man
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To: Salvation

Myself.

Especially in memos.

“If you have any questions, see Don or myself”


33 posted on 01/13/2015 9:11:24 AM PST by envisio (Its on like Donkey Kong!)
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To: Salvation

Certainly.


34 posted on 01/13/2015 9:12:48 AM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: FlJoePa
Noah Ritter is an awesome little boy. Lots of YouTube vids of him, including the one that started it all (The reporter is enthralled with him.. LOL):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rz5TGN7eUcM

SONGIFY version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eevUjhIlfM

35 posted on 01/13/2015 9:14:20 AM PST by Obama_Is_Sabotaging_America
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To: Salvation

Here’s some things that really bother me...

The word “sick” used to be something bad, now (to some people) it now means the opposite.

Expressing agreement by using the single word “this”, or even worse, “x2”.

The non-word “prolly”.

“My bad”

Starting a sentence with the word “yes” and then immediately following it with the word “no”.


36 posted on 01/13/2015 9:15:08 AM PST by Fresh Wind (The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away)
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To: Salvation
Should People Stop Saying “Absolutely” So Much?

This would eliminate about half of the dialogue in the "Rocky" films.

37 posted on 01/13/2015 9:16:59 AM PST by GreenHornet
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To: Salvation

How about...”Just sayin.” I hear it all the time and it drives me crazy!


38 posted on 01/13/2015 9:17:26 AM PST by Cry if I Wanna
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To: Salvation

Let’s also get rid of, “My bad.”


39 posted on 01/13/2015 9:18:08 AM PST by Cry if I Wanna
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To: Billthedrill
inconceivable


40 posted on 01/13/2015 9:18:53 AM PST by NorthMountain (No longer TEA Party ... I'm the TAF Party)
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