A Phrase that Reeks

"You'll get use to it."

I think that is a terrible expression; the type of thing you might say to someone entering a concentration camp. It reeks of resignation and despair - a hollow phrase spoken by someone already engulfed by death-dealing forces.

It's the jargon of the institutionalized, the dehumanized, the dead soul. It's a terribly coercive, manipulative, insidious, toxic mentality - a cancer.

When people say, "you'll get use to it," they usually mean it like so:

-I have found myself humiliated and demoralized by [....], but it is what it is and you can't do anything about it.
-The pain and dreariness of it all will eventually wash out all the color, but there will still be gray tones.
-I have suffered this; what makes you think you're any different?

When people say, "you'll get use to it," you can usually expect that something God-forsaken and awful is going to occur.

Which is precisely why anytime I hear that phrase I cringe. In fact, I'll never get use to it. I reeks. It stinks. It forever pains me.

Wes