Phrases That Need to Be Retired: "It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time"

This should be a relatively short post, because I can make my case for retiring the phrase "It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time" in one sentence. I shall invalidate all future use of the phrase as an excuse for thievery, philandering, drunk driving, manslaughter, shelling one's own troops, hitting things with hammers that should not be hit with hammers, Eighties Hair, and poorly-thought-out land wars in the Middle East with one simple phrase.

One, single sentence.

Ready? Okay. Here goes:

No one, in the history of EVER, ever did ANYTHING that didn't seem like a good idea at the time.

In fact, no one, in the history of EVER, has ever done anything that didn't seem like the absolute BEST thing to do at the time.

Because if something else had seemed like a better thing to do at the time, THEY WOULD HAVE DONE THAT.

Sure, they may have realized it was the worst thing they'd ever done in their entire lives the very next moment, but in the split-second the actual decision was made, that was the best their brains could come up with. No matter how hard that may be to believe.

Which is sometimes very hard indeed.

It's a tautology, folks. Universally true, and therefore universally useless as a qualifier.

So, from here on out, whenever you feel tempted to say "It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time" with "Boy, Was That a Dumb Thing to Do".

Or I will punch you.

That is all.

-- The Prolix Wag
Because all of my ideas ARE good ideas, all the time.