(no subject)

[kodalai]

If I've come to a single insight after twenty-one years of living on this planet and interacting with my fellow human beings that I'd like to share, I think it goes something like this.

A certain percentage of the human race across the board are assholes. This means that a certain percentage of all subsets of the human race -- democrat, republican, conservative, liberal, male, female, Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, black, white, American, French, African, Japanese, Chinese, young, old, farmer, businessman, rich, poor, Packers fans, Cowboy fans, sci fi readers, romance readers, TV watchers, book readers, professors, students, highway construction workers, receptionists, and politicians -- will also be assholes. It should not come as a shock for you to encounter these people.

However, the direct corollary to this is that the majority of all kinds of people -- Green, Independant, traditional, progressive, Christian, Muslim, Hindi, male, female, Oriental, Occidental, British, Mexican, Indian, Australian, Brazilian, teens, geriatrics, blue collar, white collar, rich, poor, baseball fans, soccer fans, goths, preps, knitters, beer drinkers, doctors, lawyers, plumbers, and janitors -- are fundamentally good people, and if you approach them with respect and compassion, then you will receive the same in return.

That is all.

Comments

[girl-starfish.livejournal.com]

*hugs* Bad day?

[kodalai.livejournal.com]

Not really. Bored at work. Boss is on vacation, can't stop me from surfing the web, hah!

[anax.livejournal.com]

Deep, very deep. :)

[kodalai.livejournal.com]

Not... particularly... it seems more on the 'obvious' side of things to me. But I guess it isn't to most people.

[anax.livejournal.com]

My experience has tended to lean more toward 50/50, actually.

[kodalai.livejournal.com]

How so? 50% of everyone you meet are jerks? Or 50% of everyone you know thinks this way?

[anax.livejournal.com]

Around 50% of the people I encounter are jerks. They tend to be jerkier to strangers, and I'm a stranger to most of the people I deal with daily.

[alphasean.livejournal.com]

50% seems a bit high. I would say that it's a very loud 25%. Or maybe you just have higher standards than myself.

[kodalai.livejournal.com]

It's more that he's more cynical.

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

Very true.

[kodalai.livejournal.com]

It just irritates me out of my skin when I encounter people with a deep and irrational hatred for such-and-such a group -- who justify it by saying "Yeah, well, I once met an X, and he was a jerk!" As if 'some x are why' translated to 'all x are y.'

[darksea.livejournal.com]

Thanks. That's something a lot of people need to remember more often.

[kodalai.livejournal.com]

It would be so nice to have the superpower to give people you meet a little perspective...

[ayelle.livejournal.com]

I say something similar about bad drivers. And that goes for Boston drivers, too -- yes, there's a higher percentage of assholes than in other places, but still, the majority of drivers here are behaving fine (and what's more, a slightly higher percentage than usual is actually making up for the bad driving of others). So anybody who claims that you HAVE to drive like an asshole in Boston, is full of it.