Hi, I am Rude : Blog # 157

Hi,I am Rude

When was the last time someone made a rude comment and people just laughed it off instead of raising a protest? More often than not, your answer would be “Quite Often”. If you pay enough attention, you will realize being rude has become quite common these days. It has reached such an extent that people who still retain their Ps & Qs are looked at as people pleasers.

I think it has a lot to do with the kind of media that we get exposed to. All the channels of popular culture have become immensely influential these days. Earlier popular culture was mostly defined by movies and television. And then arrived internet and its new found form of communication. There is an absolute absence of pleasantries on this medium. Knowingly or unknowingly, our real world interactions are getting influenced by the virtual ones.

There are a few classes of people who are always subjected to rudeness. For instance, waiters at hotels. For some strange reason, people get overtly rude when they talk to waiters. May be they are taking the ‘ordering’ food a bit too seriously.

I can think of two sides to it. One is about being ‘frank’. We are being more brazen these days labeling it as speaking our minds. I think that is just seeking convenience.  Speaking one’s mind and being inconsiderate of others feelings are two different things.

The second is the fun aspect. Being rude is fun. The fun comes out of the fact that being rude gives one a sense of false power. When someone acts or talks in a rude way, the person at the receiving end cowers momentarily. This is where from the sense of power is derived.   

There are a group of people who are not aware that they are being rude.  By virtue of their upbringing and the kind of people of they have interacted with, they become used to speaking and behaving in a certain way. The one group with whom I can’t make peace with are those who say that is the way they are and hence they are being rude! You can be all that you want but that doesn't give anyone the liberty to antagonize the other person.

Conversation demands some effort. If expressing ones idea is the only intent, then how different are we from what we were ages ago?

Arun Babu.

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