oN "mOST pEOPLE"

There’s a disturbing trend among American conversations (perhaps among other cultures as well) that is undermining how we understand and communicate information with one another. It pops up daily without warning in many conversations, my own included (though I’m quick to correct myself), and is a terrible crutch on which to lean. I’m referring to the use of a supporting statement that begins with the impossible-to-know phrase “Most people…”

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“Most people…” is used at the start of a personal opinion to justify said opinion within the context of a discussion or argument. It can also take the form of “Not very many people…” or even the meaningless “Some people…” Because such a statement is inherently sweeping and grandiose and requires experience and knowledge impossible to obtain, one may deduce that it is sheer crème de la crap, the main pile of crap being the feeble opinion on which such a defense usually rests.

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For example, take the sentence “Most people prefer to settle down in one place.” There is a general vagueness on several levels. Poor people without mobility (think New Orleans post-Katrina) have no choice but to stay put, so could settling down by necessity ever be considered a preference? Rich people (think John McCain) have the capacity to own several homes, so with a varied yearly itinerary that could consist of several destinations, is this considered settled down? Of the younger people I’ve met, there’s a considerable amount of movement between cities and states, so does “most people” refer to those individuals after a certain age, married or coupled, children or not?

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The people who use these kinds of statements and stand by them don’t take these issues into account. By slapping on “most people…” to an opinion, a neat, seemingly self-evident, faux explanation is given of a potentially complex issue.

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A personal truth can be a lot simpler than all of this hullabaloo. For example, watch the complexity fade away with the following: “Liz and I would prefer to settle down in one place.” The speaker and Liz are experts about their own lives and can comment easily as such.

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But sometimes there is no personal truth buried within a “most people…” statement. Sometimes, advice or judgment is woven within to exert a certain amount of pressure on the audience. The advice “You should settle down” is not an easy one to digest for someone who enjoys a fluid, mobile lifestyle, but it is direct, its meaning understood as well as its speaker (the person who stands behind such advice). The moment that it is disguised as “Most people prefer to settle down” is just about time a person might want to consider bailing on the conversation.

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So why do people say such things in the first place? For one, it’s easy. Who would want to place a conversation on hold every time a questionable statement came up that might require research? But more than that, it’s just easier to believe in our own appraisal of the world at large. For example, I go through this world with the assumption that most chairs work. I don’t want to waste my time checking the structure of every chair I sit in. If I questioned all of my perceptions of the world every time one became relevant to the moment at hand, I would cease to function in this world as a normal human being. There’s simply too much to fact-check.

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Still, it’s better to speak plainly, given the choice. There’s enough ambiguity in this world as it is, in our actions, our glances, our body language, that if we can simplify our language and meaning, I for one believe we’d be better off for it. I don't mean most people either. I mean all of us.