We love to be mad at each other. That’s one of my little theories about people.
On February 15th, 1898 the USS Maine sank in Havana Harbor as the result of an explosion in the forward part of the ship. The explosion was assumed to be the work of foreign saboteurs and shortly thereafter the United States entered the Spanish American War. We’ll probably never know the details behind the explosion or all the events afterward. But it was a heck of a good reason to be mad at the Spanish.
There’s a guilty pleasure at being mad at someone. If the president of Cuba felt really bad about the explosion and sent President McKinley an email (or back then a letter) apologizing and explaining the incident within hours, it probably wouldn’t have mattered. We were already mad at the Cubans and the Spanish. Once we’re mad, we usually stop asking questions (or never start).
We rarely talk to the source. It’s much more fun to speculate: “Can you believe he did that?” That’s something we can talk about for hours. If he really felt bad about it afterward and tried to make it right…well now where’s the fun in that?
Everyone has their own little “war stories” about bad customer service, snubs from friends and obnoxious family members. We relish these little stories and love to share them. There’s an episode of the television show Frazer where the characters review their experience at a restaurant. The meal would have been perfect, if it only had one small point of imperfection they could pick at for the next few hours.
As I said, we love to be mad at each other.
On February 15th, 1898 the USS Maine sank in Havana Harbor as the result of an explosion in the forward part of the ship. The explosion was assumed to be the work of foreign saboteurs and shortly thereafter the United States entered the Spanish American War. We’ll probably never know the details behind the explosion or all the events afterward. But it was a heck of a good reason to be mad at the Spanish.
There’s a guilty pleasure at being mad at someone. If the president of Cuba felt really bad about the explosion and sent President McKinley an email (or back then a letter) apologizing and explaining the incident within hours, it probably wouldn’t have mattered. We were already mad at the Cubans and the Spanish. Once we’re mad, we usually stop asking questions (or never start).
We rarely talk to the source. It’s much more fun to speculate: “Can you believe he did that?” That’s something we can talk about for hours. If he really felt bad about it afterward and tried to make it right…well now where’s the fun in that?
Everyone has their own little “war stories” about bad customer service, snubs from friends and obnoxious family members. We relish these little stories and love to share them. There’s an episode of the television show Frazer where the characters review their experience at a restaurant. The meal would have been perfect, if it only had one small point of imperfection they could pick at for the next few hours.
As I said, we love to be mad at each other.
blue_wendy:
Very thought provoking post. thanks for putting down the words.