The Golden-Plated Rule
I’ve been trying to think of a name for this for a couple hours now, on and off (between fits of debugging on Maven).
I’m trying to capture the feeling I get when driving around Gainesville, FL…if you’ve ever been out on a Friday afternoon around the mall, you’ll know what I’m talking about. This is somewhere near the opposite of the golden rule:
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
The golden rule doesn’t really apply in the impersonal aspects of life in Gainesville. I suspect that’s true of impersonal interactions all over, but this is the place where I really notice it. Driving in rush hour in Kansas City gives you a hint of this flavor, but here it’s liberally applied. The rule in effect here is the cynic’s version of the golden rule, and it reads something closer to this:
Do unto others as those bastards would do unto you (if they had the chance).
Honestly.
I actually saw something I didn’t know was possible today: a Volvo driving like a bat outta hell. Ah, life in the South.