Humanist

“Humbled”, that is the word I hear used often, but which I, myself, rarely remember to use.

Perhaps, because many times, actually, its usage is redundant.

As in, for example, when they say “I am humbled … blah, blah”, it does not add value to what they said prior or what they say after.

That which they said and or wrote with “I am humbled” would not decrease or increase in value if the word “humbled” was not used.

Moreover, most times, when I have heard “humbled”, used it is, in fact, abused.

I hear Ugandan politicians use “humbled” often, but in the context that what they say and do while they utter it is inconsistent with its meaning.

Not only politicians, even others, elite technocrats, the best in their field, often use it, but rarely, if at all, I feel, do they truly mean it.

In fact, for me, “humbled” has now become a red flag to pay attention when it is uttered. Pay attention so as to decipher the hypocrisy.

As in, what is the speaker or writer hiding in the smokescreen of “I am humbled” speak, kind of thing.

Why do they need to announce that they have been made to feel less important or less proud?

It is likely because the total sum of their actions says otherwise, me thinks.

So, yes, without a doubt, “humbled” is such a word I could permanently ban from general usage.