Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Foresee This
If I ever write the Dictionary of Stupid Expressions, it will define "the foreseeable future" as a time when I will sure as hell have a Powerball ticket in my hand.
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5 comments:
Finally, someone who can help me! I think Saturday is the next drawing -- what will the winning numbers be, as long as there is no drastic change to present trends?
I can't foresee the future. You can't either. Go back and read me your diary from Sept. 10, 2001, Miss Cleo.
To the extent that anything is foreseeable, it is often silly and arbitrary to correlate the degree of foreseeability to a time period. And the expression, in a way, doesn't really work unless it ... doesn't work. I wouldn't argue with using it to refer to, say, the likelihood of an iron beam collapsing without outside interference, but what fun would it be to apply it so noncontroversially?
When it comes to the impossible-to-foresee events that the expression is usually, and more interestingly, applied to, foresight exists -- but only in hindsight.
"No drastic change to present trends" ... "Guesses" ... "Barring any catastrophe."
Precisely my point.
If there were no alternative expression, I would agree that "foreseeable future" is so absurd on its face that it can be defended as poetically licensed, but we have "the indefinite future" and "indefinitely," for starters.
If there were no alternative expression ...
Your point is a good one, but whether your suggested alternatives will ever replace "foreseeable future," um, remains to be seen.
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