Are there any uninterrogated platitudes occupying your mind?

Writer and photographer Teju Cole asks the question about those standard and inevitable reactions we have to any given action.

He calls them annoying cliches--expressions and gestures that are expected but the maker of those expressions and gestures believe that what they are generating are fresh insights.

Cliches come about as a result of laziness, prejudice and hypocrisy among other blockages that inhabit our minds when the mental space has been emptied off thoughts.

Cole cites Flaubert and his absolute hatred of the inevitable and the expected in what people say and do.

Cole has his own list of modern day cliches. The one's I loved pertain to places:

AFRICA. A country. Poor but happy. Rising.

INDIA. Work your tolerance of or aversion to spicy food into the conversation as quickly as possible. “A land of contrasts.”

JAPAN. Mysterious. Always “the Japanese.” Mention Murakami.

PARIS. Romantic, in spite of the rude waiters and Japanese tourists. Don’t simply like it; “adore” it.

HARVARD. Source of studies quoted on BBC. Never say “I went to Harvard.” Say “I schooled in the Boston area.”

The agon between recieved notions and (fresh) thoughts is an interesting one.