I just had the most frustrating conversation with a man who summarily decided that I did not understand economics.

After five minutes of back and forth where he tried out such wonderful assertions as “you aren’t logical,” I finally got him to stop and READ what I had been saying. He admitted, with some reluctance, that he had gotten it wrong, and he didn’t realize it was possible for me to understand and explain a viewpoint without necessarily holding it. But he maintained that he was philosophically right.*

The topic? Institutional arrogance.

Because my sympathies were with a consumer terminated by a business, he (a business manager at an unrelated business) assumed I was “on the wrong side” and didn’t know what I was talking about. He started talking about all these general themes in economics and how the corporation’s alleged behavior wasn’t economically efficient and therefore couldn’t possibly have occurred. What is the biggest lesson of economics? That individual actors are often inefficient! Merely knowing the right (or efficient) thing to do is no guarantee that it will be done. Which of us is really the one in need of a review of economics?

No, to him, the truth is the truth, and others “just don’t see it.” Never mind that he’s perfectly capable of discounting the truth as seen by me, or the truth as seen by the customer. He can’t conceive of the idea that the truth as seen by him is equally to be discounted. His truth is apparently the unfiltered truth. Lest you think this is only in business, I saw this all the time in editors of news organizations, who couldn’t possibly believe that any of their writers would misrepresent the truth, even by accident, and would get all kinds of offended if you broached the possibility that something they said was not necessarily true.

I weep for the future.

*He also made sure to let me know that he needed to go bake biscotti for his wife, hints that they are “living the good life.” Aside from being a catty dig (“Perhaps you’d agree more with my perspective if you were as successful as me”) it underscores a more troubling assumption: that being able to get away with behaving a certain way means that way is morally justified. It might be a little comical to put it this way, but he has in some sense chosen to be concerned with biscotti over justice.

I have no doubt that being able to treat people poorly and justify it to yourself can garner you a profit, but that has been going on since time immemorial. It is not in need of further proof.

Seek and ye shall find.

People find what they are looking for. If you are looking for negativity you will find it, regardless of its Google rank.

The ability of a lawyer to refuse a case exists because this allows lawyers to refuse when it would violate their morals or principles.

If you do not ever refuse a case, no matter how ridiculous or abusive . . . empirically, you do not have morals or principles.

I’m not applying this to new lawyers, who statistically speaking may not have actually encountered an abusive lawsuit or anything yet. I’m just saying that overall – in any profession – there has to be SOME line you draw, or you don’t have any principles. (Or your principles have no effect, which is essentially the same thing.)

That’s up to you. But you should own it. Admit it, if only to yourself.

“Why do you like doctors so much?”

“It’s like this combination of being good hearted and being competent and being financially secure. It’s because girls look for a savior.”

“A savior, huh?”

I’ve been looking for a savior in these dirty streets
Looking for a savior beneath these dirty sheets

(Hint: Not optimal.)

I rolled my eyes. “I don’t do it because demons do it.

“I do it because it’s effective.”

A wicked smile curved my lips. I twisted my body in a three-fourths turn, my hands going to my side.

“Let me play to type.”

I was at a loss when asked if there was anyone on Twitter I would date.

There is one on Xanga I would probably date, though . . .

There is something quietly joyous in being able to outlast adversity.

Erza tells you ‘I’m marrying Mend instead. Can’t you see the engagement ring?’
You tell Erza ‘If you have to settle, settle for a millionaire? ’
Erza tells you ‘I was always the gold digger XD’
You tell Erza ‘LMAO’
Erza tells you ‘nah but I’m pretty happy. Mend is great; he helps me, I help him, and it’s all good.’

I was woken up by an insistent knocking at my door. At first I thought it was someone from work, though I had already let them know I’d be sleeping in late today. I grabbed my pants, put them on, and fumbled the lock open.

Blearily, I stared out at three well-dressed ladies carrying literature. Aware of my rumpled shirt, I put on a hesitant smile.

I had been rousted out of bed by the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

As a door turns on its hinges, so a sluggard turns on his bed. – Proverbs 26:14