I Obstruct, Therefore I Am:

An Observation

There is a Scale of Progressively Deteriorating Ability to Have Things. I believe it goes something like this:

So those people who get in your way or seem to be deliberately going abnormally slowly, or who are blocking a public space unnecessarily? Stop doubting your sanity! It is a means of self affirmation for those who dwell at the lower end of this scale. As annoying as they may be, there is a certain hideous justice, here: you are seeing the morbid evidence of their spiritual degradation displayed as if it were a badge of honor. Like a chronically-picked soul scab.

When I lived in the Bay Area, I began to doubt whether this was merely the echo of my own neuroses -- though, God knows, I have enough of those  -- but I couldn't quite let go of my self-doubt, until the Coffee Shop Incident.

The Scene: there was this coffee place in Danville (wannabe capital of Northern California), which served all their coffee from those thermos pump-thingies, which were situated all in a row, on a small strip of recessed countertop and accessible to only one person at a time.

Planted in front of all the coffee pots, was this big guy,  in a $2000 suit, reading the Wall Street Journal. Customers were contorting themselves, doing the limbo to try to get around him, muttering "Excuse me" while he feigned not to notice. Finally, the customers began to be less careful and began to reach past less politely, wrinkling his paper in the process. Do you suppose he moved? Well, yes, eventually.

With a look of annoyance, he finally moved, positioning himself to block both doors of the main entrance of the store, where customers now had to excuse themselves and do the limbo to enter the premises at all. There was a lot of room to be elsewhere, so this was obviously chosen as the second-best place to be as obstructionist as humanly possible.

The more I watched, the more instances of such wanton obstructionism I began to recognize. My then seven-year-old and I even started calling them the "Space People," because they took other people's space. The curious thing is, these were all well dressed folks.

BUT! They were living in a community which included many truly, massively wealthy people. By comparison, these $100 and $150,000 a year people were marginalized. The cost of living was astronomical. The incongruity was the trailer park behavior being exhibited by people who obviously knew better. The explanation lies in their position on the scale relative to the serious financial heavy hitters to whom they were comparing themselves.

Later, I kept seeing the same behavior, but it was in poor areas like South Central L.A. So it is a pathological behavior and you are not imagining it.

Interestingly, you will see this in health food stores, quite a lot.

 

Marty Zone

Home