Every decade has its theme-word or phrase:
1960s: Bummer
1970s: Can you dig it?
1980s; Awesome
1990s: As if
2000s: Word
2010s (the Cell Phone Gen): Swag, Emoji, APP, Hashtag, Selfie . . . just pick one.
2020s: Let’s Wait and See (already established this decade and guaranteed to spill over into the next)
“Let’s wait and see” is code language for either I don’t know or I know, but I am not saying, because I will have to field questions about it, and I’d rather keep things off-balance. It can be corporate-speak, a cover-up for a misstep, or simply a refusal to share info to keep people guessing.
It also works well for borrowing time. I confess I used it as a parent/grandparent to postpone a decision.
“Ice cream! Ice cream!,” the kids
would beg.
“Maybe later. Let’s wait and see,” I’d say.
“Let’s wait and see” originated in the Olduvai Gorge.
“Broot! Shall we lie, steal, or kill?”
Broot: “Let’s wait and see.” Which was Broot’s code language for, “Go ahead, steal the fire, do what you have to. Just remember I need plausible deniability.”
Today LW&S dines in presidential palaces worldwide. It is the cloud over every weather prediction. It surgically inserts itself into doctors’ prognoses. And it weaves its whispers into world conflict at the wave of a flag.
What will happen in the 2020s? Will the phrase of that decade be as predicted? Well … I guess we’ll just have to wait
and see.
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