In the movie The 40 Year-Old Virgin was a scene where the character Trish heaps abuse on a male caller, thinking he's a telemarketer. In fact, he's Andy, the eponymous virgin, trying to work up the guts to ask Trish on a date. The call ends with Trish telling Andy to "go fuck his mother." The rest of the audience roared and so did I.

Popular entertainment glorifies rudeness as vibrant self-expression. In the case of the very rare, witty insult, or hilarious emotional outburst, perhaps it really is. An ingenious but un-civil response can have an inevitability or quality of timelessness to it, like in the movies. Somehow, the moment of the insult could not have unfolded in any other way.

Only problem is, people internalize this notion that rude-makes-vibrant, without questioning, and you have drivers doing really obnoxious things. You have bus drivers who are jerks, nasty neighbors, and clerks with attitude.

Most day-to-day rudeness is not inspired--just as most people, most of the time, can't write like William Shakespeare or compose like Mozart. The average person doesn't typically believe they're an artistic virtuoso, but, because they unconsciously assume that their bad conduct really adds something to the world, they don't check their hurtful speech or behavior. What most uncivility is is pretentious.
8:49:26 AM    comment []