Rants & Raves of Jasmine’s Fiction

My mate wrote a blog in the immortal words of Jean Paul Sartre - Hell Is Other People.    He paints a very bleak view of the unmannered hoi-polloi - the screaming child with the indifferent parent at the theatre; the greedy shrimp shovelling bastard at the buffet table; the reckless arsewipe on the road; the self important snobs who think the world owes them a living.

Another mate of mine noted that phrases like "please, thank you, I’m sorry, excuse me" are all extinct.   Indeed, where have all the manners gone?  Has the race for bigger and better things left little things like respect, courtesy and tolerance in the dust?   Are we to think that just because we live in a ‘civilised’ age that we can dispense with civilities?

I’ve seen many asshats in my time.  I’ve been accused to my face for being a ‘resource leech’ just because I’m Asian on a school scholarship.   I have a casual acquaintance who thinks I’m flirting with the waiter every time I thank the poor sod for filling my glass.  I could go on about the ex-boyfriend who yelled at me for donating money and old clothes to charity.   And don’t get me started with the road-hogs; the queue jumpers; the selfish shits that blithely spread their rears on the seats reserved for the disabled/old/expecting; the screaming exhibitionist on the cell phone; and the self righteous ‘I-know-everything’ fucktards.

Sigh.  What is the world coming to?   Scripture tells us Hoc est enim corpus Meum.  Everything is Sacred and Immaculate.  How I wish that were so.   Everywhere I turn, everything I read, someone is getting fucked over so that someone else can get further up the ladder.  Injustice, poverty, cruelty, rape, incest, murder, war, famine, disaster…   Give me La Vie En Rose anyday.  Hell is indeed other people.

Yet…

I have also seen really moving acts of kindness – the young girl that gave her coat to the homeless guy in the dead of winter; the couple who bought dinner for the starving beggar; and the volunteers in the heart of the tsunami/earthquake/hurricane aftermath.  I know of a lady who spends her whole week collecting food and distributing to the needy and people who give up free time to clean out animal shelters, read to old folks and play with orphans.  I’m in awe of the brave folk who would race after a mugger; administer CPR; those who stand up for the weak and down-trod or even those who just hold the door open for the next person.  Good Samaritans; helpful, genuine folk; THESE people truly restore my faith in humanity. 

I know I’m a jaded sangfroid most days but when I encounter pure souls like these, a very famous poem come to mind:

Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!    

- Emma Lazarus

I feel that Sartre and my friend didn’t get it completely right.  Yes, Hell is Other People.   

But Heaven is there too. 

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 14th, 2006 at 4:45 am and is filed under Gripes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.