No One Defends the Status Quo
photo by the author
[As my friend Bill Ferriter would say, "cranky blogger alert!"]
It’s time to retire the clichĆ© “defend the status quo.” Just. Stop. Now.It’s misleading, insulting, and worst of all… it’s such an overused clichĆ©, which makes for dull writing and dumbed-down debates. We need an intervention to help people who can’t help themselves when it comes to repeating this worn-out phrase.
This blog post has been drafted, revised, and held back a number of times. What pushed me to finally click “Publish” was last week’s debate over SB-441* – a California Senate bill that aims to improve teacher evaluations. Supporters of the bill who took the debate online via Twitter grabbed this tired clichĆ© and attempted to shame the bill’s opponents with the hashtag #protectthestatusquo.
Perhaps they felt clever getting that little dig in, but the problem is, no one is actually satisfied with the general