Is it really though?

When I started this blog, I called it Ranting to Release because it’s something I do a lot; I get things off my chest in the form of a rant.  It isn’t something that I really have been doing on this blog. 

But today, world, I have something that I really want to get off my chest.  It is the smallest of things, hardly even noticeable to most of the English speaking world.  I have noticed.  I cannot be the only one… Can I?  Let us begin with a dictionary definition:

in a way that is easily perceived or understood; clearly

(Taken from Google.com).

Are you with me yet?  No.  Is it clear to you?  Is it something that you know… Something… Maybe… OBVIOUS?  Ah!  With me now are you?  Good.  Was it obvious?  No, it wasn’t, obviously. 

There, that last sentence, right there!  That!  My rage lies in that one overused word.  When did it become okay for almost every sentence we construct to be littered with this word?  Worst of all, its ill placed most of the time! 

Is there anything more frustrating than someone explaining something to you like you’re an educational throwback into infant school?  Quite a lot of things actually, but still, it is incredibly annoying.  No one likes to be patronised. 

So, dear English speaking world, someone please explain to me how this word has ended up worming its way in to everything people say nowadays?  It makes the speaker sound instantly obnoxious and rude.  The person on the receiving end feels like a moron.  Everyone is at it.

“Obviously that is something we need to look into.”  If it is obvious why weren’t you looking into it before someone brought it up?  Is it clear and easily perceived?  Obvious?  Obviously not!

In a recent phone call with my bank, the following sentence was uttered by the customer service representative I spoke to:  “We’re doing everything we can to resolve your complaint, obviously, Mr Edwards.”  Is that to say you’re doing it in an obvious way or that it should be obvious to me that you’re doing that?  How would I know?  Can I see what you’re doing?  Do I know how you progress my complaint to my end-satisfaction?    Is it easily perceived and understood by me to know how you do your day-to-day job?  No, it is not.  So why say it?

(In this instance, fair is fair; the poor guy I was speaking to was using English as his second language.  He also didn’t know that the particular word he seasoned the end of the sentence with has become one of my biggest irritations.)

Why are there so many people wandering around stating the obviousness-of-the-not-so-bloody-obvious?  Who is responsible for this?  Obviously, I want an explanation as to how they came to believe everything was so bloody obvious.  Obviously, I’m not psychic and the rest of the world is. 

The thing that most hacks me off about this abuse of the word “obviously” - I’ve been robbed of my oral sarcasm.  One of my favourite ways to deploy sarcasm in every day conversation is that word… No more!  It’s lost all of it’s charm.  No one bats an eye any more.  The word has been so down trodden and battered about, I can’t even be sarcastic with it.

Here is my plea; stop it!  If we all band together and agree to put the word back where it belongs - my personal sarcastic uses and to state when something really is clear and easily perceived - conversation would be a much friendlier place.  

And so ends my rant.