I still remember my astonishment when I learned the actual meaning of this sentence:
“I can give you a very good price on this fine used car.”
You know about iron deficiency. I grew up with irony deficiency. A lot of kids get that, growing in New Hampshire. It’s a side-effect of high-minded New England parents.
It’s not that New England parents never lie–it’s that they truly believe “Nice people don’t lie.”*
“Nice people don’t…” is a strong and wide-ranging New England anathema. For example:
- Nice people don’t hurt other people’s feelings.
- Nice people don’t make rude faces out the car window.
- Nice people don’t wear white shoes after Labor Day.
For me, growing up was learning that nice people do. Human frailty isn’t something as rare, tragic, and final as a train wreck. It’s as common and often as funny as little kids getting chocolate on their chins.
Digression #1: [rant]The Republican Astroturf guys weren’t chocolate-y children. Their scheme to con small-town newspapers and their readers was carefully planned, by people who made good money as a result. Grrrrr. [endrant]
Digression #2: Another deception that floats around doing harm is the long-discredited claim that “venting” anger is good. BZZZT! Wrong. Encouraging people to talk about how angry they are, or to act it out in symbolic ways, actually makes them more angry and violent, not less so.
Digression #3: So maybe I should take my own advice and shut up about stuff I get mad at, like those Republican Astroturf guys? Nahhhhh….