Hey, everyone … expressions Every now and then you hear people use a word or a group of words to convey an idea different from what the actual words denote, and what i find fascinating is how some proverbs, or stating a popular opinion can win an argument, and more often than not be irrelevant, wrong, and outrageous.
However, Politicians never use these phrases. For example, they say “Honesty is the best policy.”
This is a good proverb, and they are always honest , and also they never take advantage of this popular phraseology to undermine people’s intellect. Have you ever heard it… they never shove their agenda down our throats with saying stuff like…
“We have a wise nation and they know what’s best for them. to prove the world that they indeed are wise, they will make yet another history by voting in elections” On the contrary, they always leave it to people to decide whether voting is wise or not.
But you know what, there is a proverb that I do believe in… it says, “absolute power corrupts absolutely”. Unfortunately though, i’ve never heard this from them either.
Listen to this pearl of wisdom considered a fact by many, “knowledge is power”. It’s not! It’s simply a proposition; it may or may not be true.
Let’s add in a ‘can’ next to knowledge, remove “is”, and see how that turns out. Knowledge can be power, now it is a debatable thought. You see, let’s get back to the politicians’ example one more time. If we were to assume that knowledge is indeed power, then we must agree that these people are also very knowledgeable.
They’re not. Rack your brain, honestly, name one politician whose name comes to your minds immediately after you hear the word knowledge?
But can knowledgeable people have power!!! Well, I honestly don’t think we might want to open that can of worms!
Speaking of cans and worms, the idiom, “opening a can of worms.” Bears a delicious metaphor for creating a complicated situation in which doing something to correct a problem leads to many more problems.
Let’s see what happens if the worms crawl out of that can and make their way on the countertop of your kitchen. As you’re busy answering your phone, you can’t be more heedless of your surroundings; You approach the counter to rest your hands on the countertop only for a little bit, but you feel something under your hands expanding from the pressure. It’s so gross that you scream.
You let go of your phone, and it hits against the edge of the chair. Its screen breaks, the person on the phone is worried sick not knowing what’s become of you, and you’re wondering where the can of worms came from, but sad, you will never know… see, this is an excellent idiom because you can easily paint a picture with it, and it is really down-to-earth.
Don’t you love the ripple effect that chaos leaves behind, and this expression captures the essence of that. Anyway, if something is like opening a can of worms, you are advised to avoid it.
