By Richard Evans, Reporter
"Now you're being rude, and I hate rude people."
"Rudeness is an epidemic."
Hannibal Lecter M.D
WHEN psychiatric cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter stumbles across a person he considers rude, vulgar or discourteous he chooses to eat their liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.
Being a journalist on a weekly newspaper and not a cold-blooded sadistic evil genius, when someone is rude I instead either turn the other cheek, or at the very worst mutter something mildly offensive or sarcastic under my breath. Hardly a deterrent for them in the future to discontinue slamming doors in my face and treating me as if I'm their own personal door mat.
This week I really have had enough. Nothing annoys me more than when an individual assumes I may have been put on this earth to hold open doors while they shoot past without a word, or even a nod or polite half smile, which would be perfectly sufficient. Is brief eye contact too much to ask?
The other thing that winds me up is people who can't even be bothered to look at me when I speak to them or just treat me as if I am an invisible breeze.
Of course nobody is perfect, everyone has a bad day. I swore out loud just the other day when shocked by the price of the product I was buying. I was pretty miserable with the said member of staff. Realising it was not their fault (although they had been slightly abrupt and blunt when I questioned the price) I returned minutes later and apologised.
But these rude people are like this all the time and they don't even realise it. And do you know what? For the first time in my relatively short 31 years of life I have a little empathy with a serial killer - albeit a fictional one!
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