B’s
Michelle on Mar 06 2007 at 12:20 am | Filed under: The Personal, The Political
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I was in the public library, quickly gathering up a few books, and I overheard two women talking. One of them was perfectly manicured and coiffed, with expensive clothes and well, the whole nine yards, probably including a wealthy husband. The other woman was pretty well put together herself, although her matching sweatsuit didn’t give the same effect as the well-tailored clothes of the other.
They hadn’t seen each other in years. Sweatsuit Woman asked what the other was now doing. Coiffed Woman replied, “Well, I went to school and got my Master’s. I am a diagnosician. I have worked as a diagnostician for the past few years. But, I took time off to stay with little Mimi, and now I am back in the classroom.”
She sighs, as if being a teacher in the classroom is only for the poor trolls in the world who aren’t good enough to be diagnosticians.
“But,” she goes on doggedly, “I’m doing well. I’m teaching language arts. I never thought I’d ever see a classroom again though! I am, however, also a consultant, so I can still be a diagnostician. So what are you doing? Are you just staying at home?”
At this point, I have heard the word diagnostician way too many times, and the word just in her last sentence made me want to bitchslap her.
I had to fight the urge to say, “So, when you go to Starbucks, does the barista mention her Ph.D. in English everytime she serves you the coffee? Face it bitch, you’re a lowly teacher, a nothing, a nobody. It doesn’t matter what you have, it matters what you do.”
Of course I do not believe that teachers are nobodies, being one myself. If anyone ever catches me mentioning my Master’s degree and the fact I used to be a director of a school more than one time a month, they need to slap me. I probably shouldn’t even mention it that often, because what would be the point?
I didn’t say anything to Coiffed Woman, but merely passed on by as Sweatsuit Woman scrambled to find the words to justify the air she was breathing.
I did have an epiphany, however. You know how there are those people who rabidly hate Muslims and feel completely justified about our presence in Iraq because, well, they just hate them? I thought about it, and decided that if you took everyone in the Junior League and sent them over to Iraq, while letting the Iraqis set up there own little country somewhere else, then I would be very pro-war. Seriously. I’d be like, “Bomb them bitches in Iraq!” I’d cackle at pictures of shredded Prada bags amongst the carnage.
Of course, after realizing this, and yes, on a deep level, I am quite serious, sorry to say, I realized that I hate the elite. And hatred is based on fear, and sometimes ignorance. In this case, I would like to think it is fear, but not ignorance. It might be knowing too much. The elite hurt people for their own greedy selfish purposes. On a micro level, it is the woman putting down the other woman in the library. On a macro level, it is the powerful people at Monsanto who are changing the face of global agriculture forever. And others. You know who they are.
When I say elite, I do not mean merely rich. There are some cool rich folks. To me, elite connotates an attitude of power over others, and not power to be used in the best interest of those others.
I really didn’t realize the depth of my hatred until today. Whoa.
Note: I did think about not writing this. Bad judgement apparently prevailed.
Your story reminds me of one of my esteemed coworkers who informed me that she wasn’t staying in teaching any longer than she had to before becoming an administrator. Guess what I would do if they ever tried to make her MY administrator.
Heh heh, hate? Her name is Ann Coulter. If she was assassinated, I would rejoice. I know that’s just an awful thing to say (or think), but since we’re laying out our honesty, that’s mine!
o_O
Pacifism FTW.
I’m glad that you wrote this because it’s important to analyze why we’re having emotional reactions and to better understand ourselves and our value systems … clearly you don’t value people who use their money or status to control or belittle others (neither to I). So yeah, bomb the bitches!
I totally love the pic that you included for this post. And I agree that I too hate the elite and the rich. Am I elitist in turn? I root for the underdog, and I won’t deny it. I guess part of it may be jealousy, especially since I haven’t had financial security the past four or five years. Also part of it is the waste I see - driving land rovers and such - and not giving back. I figure that people who make that much money are making it at someone else’s expense or by stepping on someone - even inadvertently or as part of “the system.” Argh.
Also, having worked at a private school, I got a new insight into rich people who think they’re liberal. Talk about entitlement, white guilt, and new yuppie-dom. Double argh.
I think people like that are basically very very small and they can only live with themselves by making sure other people feel even smaller than they know deep down they are. I’m tempted to say I pity these pathetic people, but maybe that’s not really true! What is a diagnostician anyway!
The pic(s) which you titled your post with make me want to stomp a foot on the floor with my hands on my hips, then turn my head fast while I walk skip out the door.
LOL!
I have known people like that, and their lives are NEVER as great as they like others to think. I remember that whenever people try to impress me–why do they feel the need? It’s insecurity, and I feel sorry for them. I mostly dress casually, but I do like to wear lipstick. It detracts from my wrinkles!