Monday, December 24, 2018
Civilizat-ions
Sort of parallel to the silly notion of Attent-ions reprinted earlier today.
After a year of using only the Shadle Safeway, I've switched back to the NW Blvd store for various reasons, mainly related to walking in winter and bus schedules.
The two neighborhoods are sharply distinct in economic terms.
NW Blvd has a fair number of truly poor and homeless folks, plus lots of working class and some comparatively prosperous oldies.
Shadle is solidly middle-class, ranging from lower to upper middle with a slight emphasis on lower.
This morning in the NW Blvd store, the ragged dude in front of me was paying for one bottle of beer with coins. He came up two cents short. I automatically pulled out a nickel and handed it to the cashier. The cashier immediately knew what I was doing, automatically took the nickel, and finished the beer transaction. Nothing special, no comments needed.
In the solid-middle Shadle store, I wouldn't have automatically pulled out the nickel, and the cashier wouldn't have automatically known what I was doing.
As with attent-ions, the poor neighborhood is pervaded by a static field of civilizat-ions. The middle-class neighborhood lacks the static field, so civilized transactions are salient and exceptional.
Labels: #DeplorableLivesMatter
¶ 10:12 AM
