If we cherry-pick our heroes and then cherry-pick even smaller parts of their legacy to match our pre-existing beliefs, we are merely paying lip service to that mission.
Whatever lip service might be paid to gender equality, families are also highly talented at sending out covert messages about what a 'real' man or a 'real' woman should honourably do.
If your boss or employer gives you lip service, they say: " Sure, we'll give you more money. Everything will be okay. Just go back to work." It's lip service.
" We know there's a mind-body connection and we all pay lip service to it, " says Dr Robert Waldinger, the director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, which has been running for 84 years.
To say something – that you believe in something – but not to do anything about it is an example of " lip service, " or " giving lip service, " we might also say.
Earlier I had thought the success I had won satisfied an obligation I had to all Negroes . It is part of the lip service every successful Negro is obliged to pay to the notion of race progress whenever he achieves .