At the mercy of

At the mercy of

Today’s expression is “at the mercy of.” This is a tough one to use and it’s not very common, but it’s good for you to know what it means. If you are at the mercy of someone else, the other person controls you in some important way.

If you’re a farmer, your whole business is at the mercy of Mother Nature. Your business is at the mercy of the weather. The weather controls how well your crops do. You can do everything right, but your fields could be flooded. There could be a drought. If you grow fruit, a late freeze could kill a lot of the season’s fruit. You’re at the mercy of the weather, of the climate. The climate controls you in an important way: you don’t have control over that. You can hope that the weather is good, but to a large extent, you can’t control the weather. You just have to live with what the weather gives you.

If you get sick and go to the hospital, you’re at the mercy of the doctors and nurses there. You can’t heal yourself. Speaking for myself, at least, I don’t have any real decision-making power: I don’t have the information I would need to make a good decision. I have to rely completely on the doctors, if I get sick. What the doctors say, I will do. I’m in their hands.

Sometimes, though, the doctors want to do something, but the expense is not approved. In the US, patients are often at the mercy of insurance companies. That means the insurance companies control what kind of care is available. In Canada or the UK, with government-funded health care, patients are at the mercy of what the government says is a qualified expense. If you can’t pay for care out of your pocket, then you’re at the mercy of the government or an insurance company.

With that in mind, let’s revisit how you heard it earlier. These days, many people feel like they don’t have a lot of control over their lives. They feel like they’re at the mercy of large corporations and government agencies. Spotify controls what music we hear, Facebook controls what news we see, our employers control how we spend our work days, the government controls where and how we can move around in this pandemic. People feel their whole lives are at the mercy of large institutions. They feel they are controlled by large institutions of one kind or another. I don’t necessarily agree with that sentiment, but it is a popular feeling around the world. Individuals feel they don’t have control over the important things in their lives. They are at the mercy of people and organizations far away.

So it felt pretty good for fans to overturn the Super League. Many lifelong fans were committed to their clubs and their leagues. Over the years, foreign owners took over the clubs. And now they wanted to rework European soccer to squeeze even more money from fans and protect their own fortunes. It seemed like just another way in which ordinary people would have their lives controlled by someone rich and far away. They would be at the mercy of these billionaire owners from other countries.

But it didn’t happen that way. The fans made their voices heard. They showed that, in this instance at least, the team owners are the ones at the mercy of the fans. The fans, after all, are the ones who pay for the tickets. The fans are the ones who watch on TV, making broadcast rights lucrative for the owners. The fans are the ones who buy the jerseys. The fans’ support is the reason for rich sponsorship deals. Fans showed that in fact the owners are at the mercy of the fans, not the other way around.

JR’s song of the week

JR’s song of the week is “Setting Fires” by the American DJ duo the Chainsmokers. Chain smoking is smoking one cigarette after another. When you’re chain smoking, you light the second cigarette with the remains of the first, and so each cigarette you smoke is one link in the chain. I’m not suggesting it; I’m just telling you what it means.

Anyway, it’s a kind of lost-love type of song, where the girl is trying to keep the romance alive, but without much luck. “Setting Fires” by the Chainsmokers is this week’s song. Thanks to JR for selecting that one.

See you next time!

And that’s all for today. Even if you’re not a sports fan, I hope you enjoyed the last two lessons. We’ll move on to a new topic for next week, but this was huge news in Europe and for soccer fans everywhere. I heard once that Manchester United has a billion fans. I don’t believe that, but they do have fans everywhere in the world. And if you’re one of them, then rest assured the structure of European soccer is safe for now.

We’ll be back again on Monday. Remember, check out PlainEnglish.com for more English-learning resources, including the full transcript of every lesson, exercises, video lessons, and more. PlainEnglish.com. See you Monday!