The Common Jerk, Entry 3: Action Speak Louder than Words

And I'll Sell You Beach-Front Property in Colorado.

"Action is the last resource of those who know not how to dream." ~Oscar Wilde 

After a holiday hiatus, the Common Jerk is back to single out kibitzers and their false sense of wisdom.

There are many people who abuse adages every day, such as "It's always darkest before the dawn" and "Absence makes the heart grow fonder", but most of them are untrue. I mean, sometimes it's darker before 6pm in some regions, which is far too early to be "before the dawn." And perhaps it should be "Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder."

There's a whole slue of cliches, but the one that pisses me off the most is "Actions speak louder than words." 

The aforementioned phrase can be traced back to as early as the 1600s by J. Pym, or to 1856, when Abraham Lincoln said, "Actions speak louder than words is the maxim . . ."

To be fair, it's not the phrase that causes so much distress; it's the people ignorant or arrogant enough to use it. The way we interpret the phrase today is far from its original intent, and doesn't consider what "to act" really means. 

For instance, an explosion is much louder than someone screaming "at the top of their lungs", but what can an explosion convey?

A country wants to blow up another country, but why? What happened before? Can a weapon of mass destruction speak the mind of every citizen within a nation? Not really. It's just pure frustration. 

Almost any situation can be handled without brute force. Whenever violence is displayed by one individual, it often trendsends to everyone else around them. If a fight breaks out at a Burger King over the way one employee treated another, but everyone decides to fight and stay silent, then what happens? The news picks the story up as a brawl inside of a public restaurant.

If one employee discusses the treatment, maybe something else can solve the dilemma. In the event words lead to actions, it's important to realize actions only emphasis the words.

An embrace can bring truth to "I love you."
A punch can emphasize anger, distrust, or frustration.
But none of these actions can speak on their own. 

If bombs keep exploding and words aren't used, no one would know what the hell is going on. It takes words to convey the idea of "actions speak louder than words," doesn't it?

More than likely, whoever chooses action before words is a complete jerk. Go ahead, ask their reasoning and tell me you aren't shaking your head and thinking, Oh, how juvenile.

So if you only justification for violence is, "actions speak louder than words," you are this week's Common Jerk. 

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