Everybody abides (or should abide) by a small list of principles.
A kind of personalized Ten Commandments.
Regardless of your beliefs, the very first commandment on that list should be: DBAA. Don’t be an asshole.
Scholars agree that this sentence was first recorded when Moses parleyed with Pharaoh.
-Let my people go Pharaoh.
-In your dreams, Big Mo.
–Don’t be an asshole Pharaoh. Let my people go.
Get lost Matzo Boy!
And so the die was cast.
This admonition should also sound familiar to “Breaking Bad” fans. This is what Jane Margolis (Jesse Pinkman’s landlord and girlfriend) advises Jesse not to be.
It is a wise recommendation!
To avoid being an asshole, one should always remember to “put his brain in gear before putting his mouth in motion.”
Especially in view of the Miranda warning “Anything you say or do may be used against you in a court of law” and the ubiquitous presence of recording devices.
Whatever you say in a fit of anger or passion (or even worse, cold-bloodedly) will come back and bite you in the “derriere” (and hopefully in the wallet).
It is like a boomerang. In worst cases, it will come back to you and kiss you, Mafia style.
When you slight somebody you should rightly expect retribution because no bad deed should go unpunished.
French kids are particularly familiar with the story of the Soissons Vase.
No one is immune from “assholitis”.
It is a debilitating disease that is strangely similar to dementia.
Those afflicted by it exhibit impaired reasoning, delusions of grandeur, arrogance and paranoia.
They are anti-social, rude, intolerant and misogynistic. Attitudes that should not be tolerated anywhere.
Assholitis is an equal opportunity sickness and there is no-known cure for it.
The best protection against these lunatics is to put them in a virtual isolation ward.
Surround them with a wall of silence and let them marinate in their bitter, hateful brew.
Alain