American A-holes
Well, I recently found out that my hs students Medium stalk me, so I guess I have to censor myself a bit. However, I feel compelled to start a series called “American A-holes” about every day Americans who, knowingly or unknowingly, are a-holes. I can’t promise a weekly edition, but when I DO find a person inventing a brand new way to be an a-hole, or improving dramatically upon a tried and true form of a-holism, I will post here- and always on a Friday.
I thought long and hard about who should be the face of this series, and I believe I found the perfect person:
This initial installment takes us to the supermarket. Many supermarkets these days have self- checkout areas that look like this :
Notice in the image that there are six checkout areas. In this picture, the American A-hole can remain incognito, because there are open machines.
Where the American A-hole comes into play is when all the machines are booked up. Decent people form one line behind the machines and patiently wait for one to open- but not the American A-hole! The American A-hole assumes his or her time is more valuable than anyone else’s and begins a separate line, that they are in the front of behind ONE of the banks of machines. This effectively offers the American A-hole the opportunity to cut in front of everyone who formed a single file line. But, the American A-hole doesn’t care- and THAT is what makes them such an A-hole!