11 May 2005

What We Really Need is to Ride the Statue of Liberty through the City while Blasting "YOUR LOVE KEEPS LIFTING ME HIGHER!!!" (CS)

Plenty of things to comment on after reading this week's NY Press (i'm sure i'll get to my feelings on the rape of Coney Island eventually) but I couldn't avoid one article by Mark Ames. For those too lazy/busy to read, here's the passage that really piqued my interest:

The Republicans are selling a product that Middle America wants to buy, and it's a far better product than what the Democrats have to offer. That product is meanness. Americans are hooked on meanness, and that meanness is everywhere, particularly at the workplace, where American workers have been getting increasingly reamed for almost three decades

Now, the ol' "working man is getting dicked by a heartless economy/nation" is no new battlecry, but i feel he has a point that now more than ever "meanness" gets returned by the low man on the totem pole to the consumers or even everyone around them.
I'm about to go anectdotal on y'all. My mother recently had to get the front windshield replaced on her car. She happened to come across an ad in the newspaper for an autobody shop that you could get something like $25 off anything that costs more than $100 ( or something like that). The mechanic was a young guy, just starting out his own business. The work itself was cheap and quick, she got the discount, they drove the car back for her, and he even called her to ask her if she was pleased by the service and said he could send someone out to remove the tape from the windshield. She was also absolutely suprised by all this, which i suppose gets to my point. Why is this so rare today? We've come to actually expect asshole mechanics that rip you off, bored and angry food service workers that screw up orders and blame it on you, customer service people that will loudly sigh or even yell in your face...the list goes on. I have a notion that things weren't always like this. The debate on "mom and pop" vs. "big box" and commercialism has many facets, but to borrow the example from a toothpastefordinner strip, should we be suprised when we get shitty service from "a multinational corporation who beefs up its profits by underpaying its apathetic seventeen your old employees" ??
I don't mean to sound like someone out of a Frank Capra film and some people that know me well might call me a hypocrite on this one, but has it gotten so hard for the common working man (or not working, whatever) to be nice? Is honest service with a smile such a rarity now or am i just being cynical and tainting my observations with bias? Don't you think if you were a little more kindly to your neighbor it might work out well down the line? How come its cool to be mean and "hard" and why's everyone gotta have that "just about to shoot someone" look on their face all the time? Can't we relax a little? So c'mon, be a little friendlier. Don't get so worked up over stuff. Let's be good to each other and if we all pitch in yadda yadda yadda.....
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go watch Ghostbusters II.

1 Comments:

Blogger ORF said...

All I know is, karma's a real bitch. So if being nice just for the sake of it isn't enough reason, then just remember that what goes around comes around.

5/13/2005 1:37 PM  

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