Point of No Connection
So there's this guy who, for reasons untold, has been living with me and my flatmate for a week or so now. I wouldn't mention him on here were it not for the fact that he seems to me to embody a trait which I find every once in a while in the people I come across, and which never fails to drive me up the wall. It's a certain sort of overarcing competitiveness, which of course isn't to say that he whips it out, slams it on the table and tries to stare me down when I use a long word. That would be pretty good, though. In fact, I'm gonna go out now and do that to the first person that uses a long word on me.
OK, I'm back. That went well, aside from the ruined salad and all the police.
Perhaps "competitiveness" isn't the best word for it, on reflection. It's more the sense of him not understanding some of the things I say, yet possessing an automatic, unflappable conviction that any miscommunication is up to my being stupid, rather than him not understanding me. I'll give you an example:
Him: "Those things kick serious ass."
Me: "Yeah, they really do."
Him: "What the hell do you mean? You're stupid."
Okay, so that was a bad example. This is because every time I need to dredge up an example to support a point I'm making, my brain automatically shuts down all memory centers relating to that particular point, then throws away the bookmarks and starts thinking about something else, like vodka or boobies. And I don't even particularly like vodka.
Nevertheless, the feeling remains. We all (or most of us, I would hope) know what it's like when there's a level of mutual "get-itness" with someone; when you have that zone of comfort where you're able to go out on little limbs of lateral thinking and express the intangibles informing your particular view of the world without fear that it's going to meet with the telltale blank stare that tells you you not only threw a wide pass, but that you tried to throw it to a piece of furniture in shorts.
Thing is, while most wide-pass non-receivers usually register the fact that the pass was there, and they missed it (I say this having watched my fair share sail by), there are some - a rare but intensely annoying breed - who are not only completely comfortable with missing the pass, but who manage, through some kind of non-Euclidean combination of idiocy and charisma, to actively convey the impression that because they don't get it, you're stupid.
I wouldn't be ranting about this - the guy in question will be living in my house for a few more days at most, and then he'll be gone and I'll never see him again - but I guess I just get annoyed at myself sometimes for not having the courage of my convictions when confronted with dissenting voices that I know to be wrong.
I mean, everyone should think like me, right?
Right?
OK, I'm back. That went well, aside from the ruined salad and all the police.
Perhaps "competitiveness" isn't the best word for it, on reflection. It's more the sense of him not understanding some of the things I say, yet possessing an automatic, unflappable conviction that any miscommunication is up to my being stupid, rather than him not understanding me. I'll give you an example:
Him: "Those things kick serious ass."
Me: "Yeah, they really do."
Him: "What the hell do you mean? You're stupid."
Okay, so that was a bad example. This is because every time I need to dredge up an example to support a point I'm making, my brain automatically shuts down all memory centers relating to that particular point, then throws away the bookmarks and starts thinking about something else, like vodka or boobies. And I don't even particularly like vodka.
Nevertheless, the feeling remains. We all (or most of us, I would hope) know what it's like when there's a level of mutual "get-itness" with someone; when you have that zone of comfort where you're able to go out on little limbs of lateral thinking and express the intangibles informing your particular view of the world without fear that it's going to meet with the telltale blank stare that tells you you not only threw a wide pass, but that you tried to throw it to a piece of furniture in shorts.
Thing is, while most wide-pass non-receivers usually register the fact that the pass was there, and they missed it (I say this having watched my fair share sail by), there are some - a rare but intensely annoying breed - who are not only completely comfortable with missing the pass, but who manage, through some kind of non-Euclidean combination of idiocy and charisma, to actively convey the impression that because they don't get it, you're stupid.
I wouldn't be ranting about this - the guy in question will be living in my house for a few more days at most, and then he'll be gone and I'll never see him again - but I guess I just get annoyed at myself sometimes for not having the courage of my convictions when confronted with dissenting voices that I know to be wrong.
I mean, everyone should think like me, right?
Right?
posted by fnoonf at 03:38
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