I’m not much of a people person, so I can usually ignore gossip. Self experience and reading are my preferred methods of learning. Unlike my wife, I’ve never much cared what “they say.” “Who they?” I often respond.
“They” do have meaning and some value, just like “common sense.” Both are equally contradictory and unreliable, although each often contains a germ of truth. They help to sort out the clearly impossible like “by taking this drug, pigs can fly.”
The real issue with gossip, common sense, and “they say” is that all are usually not directly impactful to me. Oh, there is some usefulness, but – again – what is the value to me, personally, if pigs can fly. How does it change my life today?
We live in an age of miracles, when almost anything that can be imagined might be possible. The problem becomes not sorting the “true” from the “untrue” as separating the “relevant to me” from the whole mass.
Like many phrases, “they say” is a social relaxer. It puts you at a little distance from whatever the claim may be. It automatically lowers the level of direct antagonism, which makes it truly socially useful.
But an equally useful source of knowledge? No. And that’s actually okay because if I respond I don’t believe something “they say”, there is no real challenge to the person I heard it from. Such makes complicated conversation a useful, enjoyable, game
HuntingtonHarborThoughts 