We've been duped by the Powers of Positive Thinking!
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the power of positive thinking; it's great to have this power on one's side, especially when one's down and one needs a quick pick-me up. However, and there is always an however-or a but, for that matter-, many of us are carrying this power to dangerous extremes-with commensurate results. We even use it in the hospitality industry, telling our customers that we will take care of the problem by saying "don't worry we will make it right" even with employees we say things will be all right. Just think about it how many times as hoteliers we use this phrase to appease our customers. Just maybe we should take the time to use it less, and be more proactive in making things "right".
The main culprit for this is the two-word phrase, "all right." Many of us, especially the "us" that should know better, bandy this phrase about as if it were THE cure-all for everything negative that is confronting us, or those around us. We shrug off all our misfortunes, the misfortunes of others-family or friends-,and the misfortunes of our country, as well as the misfortunes of other countries with "it, they, he, or she, that will be all right;" with little or no thought as to how this "all right" is going to happen.
In other words, in uttering this "all right", we expect immediate action to take place by seen and or unseen forces and actors to bring order out of chaos, thus reinforcing our delusion that saying or believing that everything will be all right actually is the preeminent solution to all our problems.
In our desperation (delusion?) to find inner peace or to evade strife and worry, we solace ourselves in the "Cloak of All Right"-we have created within us the idea that everything is all right, when in fact little is all right.
We wish away catastrophe, danger, misfortune (ours and others', but mostly the misfortunes of others) with "it will be all right."
No matter what the outcome of any given situation, the answer most given by the one doing the comforting, is that "it will be all right," and, if the injured party has a positive outlook, he or she also will say, "Yes, it will be all right."
I wonder if the first user of the phrase-as an adjective in 1819 and as an adverb in 1837-ever had it in mind for that phrase to be the ultimate delusional panacea that it has become.
Many of the people I deal with, people who should know better, seem to me to be using "all right" as a cop-out, as an excuse for their own mistakes and failures. If those people learn by their mistakes and failures and don't repeat them, then that IS "all right," but if they don't, then their "all right" is nothing less than delusion on their part; leading, ultimately, to self-destruction, and that IS NOT "all right."
Too many people use "all right" more in the context of shrugging off a failure than in acknowledging a success, in the sense of "Oh, it'll be all right, don't worry about it", when in fact the failed result needs to be addressed and not dismissed with a shrug of the shoulders and a phrase. The younger generation, of course, have taken over the phrase and turned it into an exaggerated opposite, "All Right!"-an ecstatic YES!
I guess that's all right, too.
What I am saying, and seem to be having a hard time saying it, is that "all right" is overused so much that it it's not only a cliché, but has probably become meaningless, as well-except as a joyful assent or as an assent of "I don't care; I'll take care of the problem (a problem most likely caused by the phrase user) when I get around to it (on my time schedule; not your time schedule).
All right, then. I am done, and if you find what I have written to be all right, than all RIGHT!
Have a great all RIGHT! New Year, and may all your wishes, dreams, and hopes come to fruition during the coming year and bear fruit that will bring peace and harmony into your life-family and friends-so much so that by the end of the year you will be able to look back at it and state, unequivocally, that 2012 was an all right year.
Mr. Hotel
Alan Campbell has been in Las Vegas for over 30 years and has worked for the major strip hotels. He has spent some time in California, Los Angeles where he worked for the Radisson and Sheraton hotels. Alan considers the hospitality industry the best job in the world – it is the only place that both kings and Paupers will visit you.
