People Describe What Is Mightier Than The Pen If The Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword
"The pen is mightier than the sword," is one of those expressions we hear a lot in film and television, as well as read in a lot of hack novels about bureaucrats and novelist imagining themselves stronger than a dozen warriors.
It's definition is simple to understand, but there can be a counterargument against it. The underlying truth being one sword can kill one person and one pen can sign the death warrants of a thousand.
So, what could possibly be mightier than that?
To the internet!
Reddit user Damemesharer wanted to know what's better than the metaphorical pen when they asked:
"If the pen is mightier than the sword, what is mightier than the pen?"
Some of these responses seem obvious, but perhaps you don't take them too seriously.
How Do You Quantify Which?
"Picture, which is worth a thousand words"
No_Read_Only_Know
"Well ... if the pen is mightier than the sword, and a picture is worth a thousand words, I would say a camera is mightier than a pen."
atomic_auburn
Run!
"Your girlfriend when she's hungry."
scottyp9
"It's called being hangry!"
Shaddolf
The Overwhelming Power Of Shifting The Words
"Whiteout?"
WitcheeeeeeeeeeWoman
"It would actually make sense if you took whiteout as being able to change someone's words or rewrite history or something"
R1ce661
The Entire Game Has Changed
"Uno reverse card"
Fine_Cucumber_6665
"no one man should have all that power"
sellingthalasin
It doesn't have to be anything mind blowing, epiphany-giving, or universe altering, to speak to some sort of truth in the world.
Faster And Less Ink
"The keyboard because it makes the pen obsolete."
Hrnghekth
The True King
"Unfortunately, money."
jaynuggets
Find The Way To Their Hearts Through Their Stomach
"The fork if you can't win them with words cook for them they'll soon come around."
TripleJx3
After all, what's mightier than the pen?
Pick Your Weapon At The Most Crucial Moment
"The hand that knows when to wield the pen and when to wield the sword is mightier than both"
Go_Green_Bay12
"Like the only good answer so far lol"
JackofScarlets
Ah....I Mean, Sure
"Diarrhea"
DiarrheaGuy13
"Dysentery has a higher body count than both world wars combined!"
CaffeinatedHBIC
Make People Happy
"The orgasm"
"(This isn't even a joke, harm as a motivator (sword) reason as a motivator (pen), pleasure as a motivator (orgasm))"
Mlquinif
Never Blame The Tool For The Person Behind The Tool
"What is a pen without the hand that wields it."
Atomicslap
"As powerless as the sword. Ultimately, any tool may only be as powerful as its weilder."
tkm1026
What's mightier than the pen?
Someone who won't read what was written.
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Go ahead and swear it out; science has finally confirmed that it's good for your health!
Multiple scientists have finally confirmed what some of us already felt, swearing can have quite a few beneficial side effects.
Calm down, sailor, there are some caveats here.
Let's start by taking a look at the work done by researchers at Keele University. Fans of Mythbusters may recognize some of the basics of this study, as something similar was done in a very small scale on the show with surprisingly similar results.
Researchers put test subjects into an ice bath and asked them to stay for as long as they could stand. On average, people made it about a minute and fifteen seconds.
Interestingly, the people who let loose the expletives were able to stand the ice bath for about 50% longer. Swearing made them better able to handle pain.
Turns out this scene in 40-year Old Virgin was scientifically accurate.
Kelly Clarkson!
According to Dr. Richard Stephens, swearing helps trigger your brain to release adrenaline; a chemical well-known for numbing pain as part of your natural fight or flight response.
"Adrenaline is released, the heart pumps faster and we become more enabled to overcome an aggressor or make a swift getaway. Swearing helps many people better tolerate pain."
Neurologist, Dr. Steven Pinker has written a book detailing five different ways that humans use swear words. Interestingly, it's pretty similar regardless of what language you speak or what words you deem as swearing.
Kelly Clarkson! Again!
People swear as a descriptive word:
"I need to take a sh*t."
People swear for emphasis:
"This ice cream is SO f*cking good!"
People swear to abuse others:
"You assh*le!"
People swear as an idiom:
"That was f*cked up."
And finally, the use with all the power, people swear as catharsis:
"Kelly Clarkson!"
Numbing pain isn't the only benefit we get from swearing, though. Dr. Emma Byrne and her colleagues at City University London have found that swearing can be something of a bonding experience.
She's found that groups of people who share the same lexicon of swearing (meaning they swear the same way) work together more effectively, feel closer, and are overall more productive than those who don't.
Those same studies showed that swearing helps relieve stress and can reduce instances of violence. Dr. Byrne has even been able to demonstrate the ways in which swearing has shifted from a negative to being used more in positive situations.
She studied thousands of football fans and their language during games and found that they swear just as much when they are excited or happy as they do when they're frustrated.
This kid's got it down, we're sure of it!
Now remember when we said there was a caveat to all of this?
It turns out the pain-numbing social-bonding happy happy joy joy effects really only work for those who don't swear on a regular basis. Like many things, your body and brain can build up a tolerance to the effects, rendering them all pretty much useless if you're a frequent flyer on "F*ck You" airlines.
So keep the swearing to a minimum, but don't be afraid to let out a good old fashioned "Kelly Clarkson!" when you need one.
It's good for you!
My first job was at Ross. I was in high school, I was young and naive - far too young and naive for the horrors that awaited me the first day I was asked to help clean out the fitting rooms. Our store didn't have restrooms open to the public, though we would let customers use them if they asked - particularly women with children. Unfortunately, several customers decided there was no point in asking, they would just help themselves to use the fitting rooms as bathrooms. Diapers, menstrual products, and urine puddles were pretty common. Nothing could prepare us for the "Black Friday Incident of 1998"
The store was jam packed - obviously. It was Black Friday and it was Ross. We were swamped, there were three fights and one woman went into labor. But that wasn't even the bad part. The bad part came when the lone attendant at the fitting rooms grabbed the phone, hit the loud speaker button and let out a wail for help... and a few expletives.
"Oh HELL F^CK NAW. IF Y'ALL DON'T GET ME A MANAGER AND SOME GLOVES RIGHT NOW I AM LEAVING!"
One of the three managers on duty ran to her aid expecting maybe an influx of people that was too much to handle ... but no. Someone had used the men's fitting room to release their Black Friday anguish through their bowels. It was on the mirrors, the carpet, the fitting room walls, splashed into the next fitting room stall ... and they had used a few onesies from the baby department to wipe. Then they'd just left, leaving the employees - mostly high school kids and older ladies - to clean it all up. It was atrocious. The fitting rooms had to be closed, which made customers irate.
One Reddit user asked:
Retail workers of Reddit, what's your Black Friday horror story?
And yeah... there's mine. Here are a few more for your "enjoyment" - some responses have been edited for clarity or content.
H/T: Reddit