Whats The Point Of Flogging A Dead Horse?
Well, exactly! The point of this saying is that flogging or beating a dead horse won’t make it work any faster. In other words, there are some tasks that just aren’t worth pursuing, because you are never going to get any results. The saying is commonly used in connection with trying hard to convince someone through logical argument, when they have long decided what they think and have closed their minds to all further ideas (or are just not interested in the topic and switch of as soon as it comes up.) A good example might be trying to persuade someone to give up smoking when they really don’t want to; they probably won’t take in all the statistics, medical information etc, so it’s a waste of time trying. We often use more straightforward expressions like “a hopeless task” to convey the same idea.
