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https://aeon.co/essays/so-you-re-surrounded-by-idiots-guess-who-the-real-jerk-is>
"Picture the world through the eyes of the jerk. The line of people in the post
office is a mass of unimportant fools; it’s a felt injustice that you must wait
while they bumble with their requests. The flight attendant is not a
potentially interesting person with her own cares and struggles but instead the
most available face of a corporation that stupidly insists you shut your phone.
Custodians and secretaries are lazy complainers who rightly get the scut work.
The person who disagrees with you at the staff meeting is an idiot to be shot
down. Entering a subway is an exercise in nudging past the dumb schmoes.
We need a theory of jerks. We need such a theory because, first, it can help us
achieve a calm, clinical understanding when confronting such a creature in the
wild. Imagine the nature-documentary voice-over: ‘Here we see the jerk in his
natural environment. Notice how he subtly adjusts his dominance display to the
Italian restaurant situation…’ And second – well, I don’t want to say what the
second reason is quite yet.
As it happens, I do have such a theory. But before we get into it, I should
clarify some terminology. The word ‘jerk’ can refer to two different types of
person (I set aside sexual uses of the term, as well as more purely physical
senses). The older use of ‘jerk’ designates a kind of chump or an ignorant
fool, though not a morally odious one. When Weird Al Yankovic sang, in 2006, ‘I
sued Fruit of the Loom ’cause when I wear their tightie-whities on my head I
look like a jerk’, or when, on 1 March 1959, Willard Temple wrote in a short
story in the
Los Angeles Times: ‘He could have married the campus queen…
Instead the poor jerk fell for a snub-nosed, skinny little broad’, it’s clear
it’s the chump they have in mind."
Via Esther Schindler.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
