Many years ago I worked in a Mediterranean blue fish bowl of chaos in which everyone ran around in circles while the temperamental cook screamed out orders making Gordon Ramsey look like a kitten. It was one busy evening I made the simple mistake of taking the garlic bread to the wrong table.
I heard “Darcia!”
I went to the kitchen “Where is the bread?”
“I took it to the table.”
“Go back and F*%^king get it! It is not supposed to be for that table!”
He then slammed down a plate and yelled several names at me in Greek which will not be repeated on this blog.
My cheeks turned red, I turned on my heels, stomped out of the kitchen, and without a word picked up the bread from the customer’s table.
I stormed to the kitchen window “You want the fucking bread? Here is the god damn bread. You big fat asshole!”
It was that evening as we finished our tables I waited to be chewed-out and fired hoping that I could still collect my end of the evening tips. But I was never reprimanded or fired because he knew he was being an asshole.
In Aaron James, Asshole: A Theory he points out “Assholes are a given fact of life. They are a fact of life we somehow make peace with if we are to be at peace itself.” As the world shifts there seems to be a rise of assholes which we either learn to co-operate, resist, or ignore in our daily lives. At the time, I lost my temper recognizing I was no longer willing to cooperate or ignore the asshole. My only risk was to challenge him at his own game and let him know that my bark had bite.
The problem is this asshole was not born to be an asshole but was nurtured within society to be one. The rise of the Asshole is a societal problem in which we need to look at how we are nurturing our children. Are we raising them to be self-entitled without thought? If this, is the case then are we shooting ourselves in the foot by raising them to believe that they are the best without and should not have any concern for their fellow-man?”
Also, as technology and science advance there is a consumer need to purchase and want more. But we are no longer questioning the ethics behind the products or what we are consuming. We are turning away from the humanities for the convenience of the fast fix. Does it not create a disconnect from reality and beauty of day-to-day life?
As long as we are willing to give the cable news asshole a platform to spew bias or allow for the cooperate asshole to tarnish our clean water supply. We are accepting a culture of assholes and perpetuating that they will always be a part of society. Imagine a world in which rational debates could be met with compromise providing more meaning to the betterment of man instead of expletives and bread throwing.
Aaron James points out, “If humanity had a body it would have an asshole.” But why do we give an asshole so much power?
