Here it goes: Try not to be an asshole. If everyone does that, and mostly succeeds, I think peace and tranquility will naturally follow.
There generally are at least two ways of handling any situation - as a reasonable person, and as an asshole. Just go for option one. That is all for now.
Reminder
12 years ago
6 comments:
I was sitting in a teleconference CLE Ethics seminar with a couple of colleagues about a year back, and after the teleconference had concluded, I observed "Really, you could boil all of the ethics rules down into one simple principle. 'Don't be a douche.'"
Not terribly relevant, I know, but your post reminded me of it.
Unfortunately the people being assholes don't think they are. That's the problem. And if you point out that they're being assholes they accuse YOU of being an asshole.
It's a vicious circle.
Armagh - it sounds like another way of saying the same thing.
Replicant - I think it doesn't take too much effort to figure out when you are being an asshole.
True, sometimes one can come off as one from simple insensitivity, but I still think that the most egregious examples are obvious enough that someone ought to know the difference.
Or maybe this engenders a discussion of what it means to be an asshole... and if you can answer that, you can show enough self-awareness to avoid being one.
Sorry, no. If your political economy has important and highly compensated chairs marked "Assholes Only," you can be sure more than a few people will comport themselves appropriately to sit in them. And replicant is absolutely correct. "We're not assholes! We're creating jobs!"
Replicant - I think it doesn't take too much effort to figure out when you are being an asshole.
It's all a matter of perspective. I think religious people are assholes, and religious people think atheists are assholes, but neither groups thinks they are assholes.
Armagh - it sounds like another way of saying the same thing.
Well, yeah, you've got me there, and that is likely why it popped into my head.
I know the anecdote wasn't terribly relevant to the discussion, but it's one of my happier memories as it was from the days when I was still very new in the office (I am no longer working there, sadly) and one of the office veterans burst out laughing at the comment. Which turned out to be the first step in getting me out of the abject terror of the experienced lawyers that a certain percentage of newly-minted members of the Bar seem destined to deal with.
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