I try to be gracious, but I also try to be candid.
Some people are neither. They are sarcastic and tricky.
I admit to being situationally sarcastic, and tricky when being candid or plain can be dangerous, but I think that those are the rarer times. Even rarer are times when I’m just mean and devious.
In my work-life (here at the synagogue and in every other job I’ve had), I have been around an inordinate amount of materially wealthy people. They are mostly gossipy assholes. They come from such a place of privilege that they are literally offended and horrified when I, or others, don’t cater to their every whim.
These people have such a sense of entitlement that the idea that someone else might have needs is impossible for them to fathom. They are so special that they throw childish fits when they aren’t being attended to by everyone around them. They can’t be humiliated by having to ask for something or communicate their desires, so they have intermediaries do it for them, in the guise of “not being confrontational” when in fact, they cannot deign to address those they view as beneath them.
The world they live in is controlled entirely by their appetites and their bowels.
They really need to get jobs.
I was being teased over the phone yesterday by one of my regular old people, so I teased him back. We laughed and joked and the call ended. Today, it was passed on to me (through a chain of three people) that he thought I was rude and mean.
Here’s the chain:
Old Person on the Phone
V
Board President
V
My Boss
V
Me
How is that not childish behavior? How is that not tricky and sarcastic, classist and elitist?
I may live in an egalitarian society, but these people do not. They still live in 19th Century New York, and everyone has their place in the chain.
Thats right, now get back to the old abandoned brewery with the rest of the immigrants. And stop messing about with them Dead Rabbit boys!
Oh man, I bet when he talked to the Board President, he referred to you as “the phone girl”.
What a berk.
And he’ll wonder why you don’t joke around with him anymore when he calls. Sad.
What a bunch of bullshit!
(The situation with the old guy. Not your post!)
Wow. What a knob.
Roll like the geeks and cooks of the city do. Piss in their soup and read their email while laughing at them. It’s how we proletariat keep smiling.
And don’t be afraid to hijack their net connection to do all of your torrent downloading. It’s not like they have any idea how much bandwidth they have.