A society is generally as lax as its language. October 2000, Vol.
Popular prescriptions are the platitudes and proverbs by which people live their lives.
It is these dicta that determine who we are and how we act. Dull-witted speakers and writers depend on prescriptions like these to guide them through life. For this poor populace, life is, we may surmise, laid out. Popular prescriptions endure not for their sincerity but for their simplicity. We embrace them because they make all they profess to explain and all they profess to prescribe seem plain and uncomplicated.