Why are these dudes so offended?

[Birdjaguar]

Those guys just think they have money. They feel rich because they are better off than most and think they got there on their own. They were insulted that a "poor" person would think his "small change" was meaningful to them. The last guy was pretty hilarious. A C class Benz is only barely a Benz. It's a Benz throwaway for the desperate up and comers.

 

[Borachio]

But aren't they right?

Isn't that part of the American dream: that you can make money, become "somebody", and doesn't that mean they are "better" than a ne'er-do-well who can only beg for money on the streets?

Do you really not buy into this narrative, Mr Jaguar?

Any kind of Benz is better than no Benz at all, after all.

 

[warpus]

A lot of people who have embraced materialism are always trying to one-up their friends and colleagues. If your friends are of a certain social status, they might all have fancy cars for example. People who have fallen prey to such cancerous ways of thinking will then try to end up with a car which is nicer than all the other ones which their friends already own. Such a person, when presented with a raise at their job, will immediately use that money to attempt to increase their social status by acquiring material social status symbols.

Unfortunately there are a lot of people like that here in North America (and probably elsewhere, but I have only lived here for the last 25 years, so..).. and unfortunately to a lot of them, if not most of them, material wealth and social status equate to your worth as a human being.

 

[Borachio]

I think it's more widespread than you realize. I very often catch myself out thinking in exactly this way. Yet I spend a great deal of time thinking of so-called "spiritual things", contemplating my inevitable demise, and just being plain outright relatively poor.

 

[Birdjaguar]

But aren't they right?

Isn't that part of the American dream: that you can make money, become "somebody", and doesn't that mean they are "better" than a ne'er-do-well who can only beg for money on the streets?

Do you really not buy into this narrative, Mr Jaguar?

Any kind of Benz is better than no Benz at all, after all.

Yes of course; I had forgotten and am ashamed to have not recognized my error before I went public with it. I am not anyone special and I don't own a Benz....Wait a minute, could they be connected?

As far as fancy cars go, I am partial to Jaguars, E types to be specific.

 

[Borachio]

I quite like Jaguars myself. But only in the abstract, I think. I really wouldn't want to own one.

(Either the organic or motorized versions.)

Sure, nice motors.

Can I have a drive in yours, then? I promise not to wreck it. Over much. Well, not deliberately, at any rate.

 

[warpus]

I think it's more widespread than you realize. I very often catch myself out thinking in exactly this way. Yet I spend a great deal of time thinking of so-called "spiritual things", contemplating my inevitable demise, and just being plain outright relatively poor.

Yeah, I only mention North America because that's what I have experience with. The U.S. is also very ideologically capitalist - there's a lot of materialism eminating from their shores.

 

[Farm Boy]

I'm a bit with El Mac. Granted, I'll not argue these suits don't appear to be massive dbags. They probably are. But something out of the ordinary? There's enough people in a given day trying to take advantage of you, this'd probably kick my guard up. I started to hackle when the woman acted so trusting, tbh. But that might just be me having seen too many things like "Bundy."

 

[Borachio]

Sure. It's a bit of an ambiguous set-up. If his placard had been more explicit about giving people handouts rather than appearing to be a normal panhandle, then I don't suppose people would have reacted so badly. It's a case of confounding expectation as much as anything, I think. People were expecting to be asked for money and then to be offered it instead would through a lot of people off balance.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Sure. It's a bit of an ambiguous set-up. If his placard had been more explicit about giving people handouts rather than appearing to be a normal panhandle, then I don't suppose people would have reacted so badly. It's a case of confounding expectation as much as anything, I think. People were expecting to be asked for money and then to be offered it instead would through a lot of people off balance.

That's the idea. It's when you throw people off balance that you find out what they are really made of...and when they find out themselves. One can hope that those guys eventually paused to consider what that interaction showed they were made of and took it under advisement.

 

[Borachio]

One can always hope, I suppose.

And that would be yet another example of the triumph of hope over experience, I fear.

I know I very seldom take such interactions "under advisement" for the betterment of my character. When caught out, I generally resort to the normal bluster and post-hoc rationalizations that have kept me more or less sane right up to the present moment.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

One can always hope, I suppose.

And that would be yet another example of the triumph of hope over experience, I fear.

I know I very seldom take interactions "under advisement" for the betterment of my character. When caught out, I resort to the normal bluster and post-hoc rationalizations that have kept me more or less sane right up to the present moment.

In this circumstance, where there is absolutely no way to even approach checking on a result, I prefer to be hopeful...but experience does breed a more cynical view.