A**holes

Pretty piece of cloisonné, Musee D'Orsay, February 2023 

Someone I follow on Facebook posted a link to Assholes: A Theory, a Canadian documentary film based on the book of the same name by the American philosophy professor, Aaron James.

If you've got 74 minutes to spare, I would recommend you watch it, not because the "theory" is anything new, but because of the examples it uses to make its point: Rob Ford, Silvio Berlusconi, obnoxious surfers, hedge fund managers, Internet trolls and the RCMP.

Everyone knows what makes a person an asshole ... an oblivious sense of entitlement that manifests in rude, selfish, and mean behaviour.

Most everyone will admit that they act like an asshole every once in a while (I know I do). But only true assholes never regret it, or apologize, or, really, even notice. 

Which is to say that perspective matters.

For example, one day I was crossing on foot eastbound at Jarvis and King streets, and a guy in a big black Lexus, anxious to get on with his very important day, turned off King and obstructed the pedestrian crosswalk to join the unmoving queue of traffic southbound on Jarvis.

To get by, I had to squeeze between his bumper and the bumper of the car in front of him. I looked him in the eye through his windshield and mouthed the word "asshole." I didn't yell at him; I didn't hammer my fists on the hood of his car. I just shared my opinion of him, in case he wondered at all. 

Crossing the street the other way was a man, maybe about thirty-five or forty, dressed in a natty blue suit that looked like it needed to be pressed.

He said to me just as I passed him, "you're an asshole."

He spoke so softly I barely heard him, but there was no question he was speaking to me.

I'd just had one unpleasant experience with a stranger and wasn't interested in having any more that day, so I kept walking.

But that was weird. I'd just witnessed someone I'm going to assume was an asshole rising to the defence of another asshole from someone he clearly thought was an asshole. 

Next thing you know, the assholes will be making a documentary about us.

Thanks for reading!

Karen

Stolen bicycle parts in
the Allan Gardens encampment.