more tube fun
Well, the adreneline was certainly flowing this morning. Two women got involved in an argument on the tube, and like the good citizen I am (shush! it’s true) I duly admonished them for getting on everyone’s collective tits. I’m not 100% sure how it started, but I know we’d stopped and more people were squeezing onto the carriage. A blonde lady (let’s call her Lady One) was holding onto a rail and started complaining to a black lady (Lady Two) who’d just got on and appeared to have pushed her hand away, or something equally trivial.
Of course, in such a claustrophobic, stressed-out environment what should be a minor irritation can serve to bring one to the edge of their sanity, and if I couldn’t hear exactly how the dispute started I very quickly heard the rest as it escalated into a proper slanging match. It must be said that, as the accused party, Lady Two was doing most of the (very loud) talking. She was well-spoken and clearly not some ignorant pikey sort, although she did drop the F-bomb fairly early on, which really should equal an automatic loss via disqualification in any argument, were there only an official governing body to make such rules. She also, when told by Lady One to watch how she was talking, said “It’s my mouth, I can speak how I like!” No shit, and there was me thinking she’d borrowed somebody else’s.
Anyway, neither party was showing any sign of backing down and nobody else in the carriage looked inclined to say anything, so in my best attempt at an authoritative voice I implored both of them to give it a rest as nobody wanted to listen, and after a final “It’s my mouth” (yes love, I know), they actually did. Result! Yay me.
I’m still amazed I was the only one to say something, and it followed that nobody thanked me for making their journey more bearable again. I tried to continue reading my book for the rest of the journey, but my hands were shaking far too much. Perhaps I had made them feel even more uncomfortable. Or were people annoyed at me for curtailing their enjoyment of this slanging match? Ah, sod ‘em. Strangers arguing is not something you should put up with on public transport if you don’t want to.
The problem with this rationale is that it’s very similar to that of Lady Two, who rightly or wrongly felt aggrieved, and is clearly somebody who stands up for herself in such situations. She’s probably writing an outraged blog post of her own right now. In this particular case though, the aggressive manner in which she responded to Lady One shattered the fragile calm of our tube carriage. Her “I’ll say what I like” style protestations are scarily reminiscent of many of the more unpleasant Big Brother housemates. “Yeah, well, I don’t care if I’m pissing everyone else off, if I don’t like someone I’ll tell it to their face, I don’t go behind their back. You get me?”
Speaking as someone who doesn’t want to live in an anarchic world where everyone is at constant loggerheads, I think talking about people behind their backs is underrated. We all have bad thoughts about our fellow men from time to time - I’m certainly guilty as charged - but we don’t all want to go through life drawing up an endless enemies list, and therefore we moderate what we say depending on the situation and the company. Being “honest” and being a prick are often the same thing. We’re all going to hell as a society, as I’ve already noted. But at least some of us are intending to stay around the outer circles.
Of course, in such a claustrophobic, stressed-out environment what should be a minor irritation can serve to bring one to the edge of their sanity, and if I couldn’t hear exactly how the dispute started I very quickly heard the rest as it escalated into a proper slanging match. It must be said that, as the accused party, Lady Two was doing most of the (very loud) talking. She was well-spoken and clearly not some ignorant pikey sort, although she did drop the F-bomb fairly early on, which really should equal an automatic loss via disqualification in any argument, were there only an official governing body to make such rules. She also, when told by Lady One to watch how she was talking, said “It’s my mouth, I can speak how I like!” No shit, and there was me thinking she’d borrowed somebody else’s.
Anyway, neither party was showing any sign of backing down and nobody else in the carriage looked inclined to say anything, so in my best attempt at an authoritative voice I implored both of them to give it a rest as nobody wanted to listen, and after a final “It’s my mouth” (yes love, I know), they actually did. Result! Yay me.
I’m still amazed I was the only one to say something, and it followed that nobody thanked me for making their journey more bearable again. I tried to continue reading my book for the rest of the journey, but my hands were shaking far too much. Perhaps I had made them feel even more uncomfortable. Or were people annoyed at me for curtailing their enjoyment of this slanging match? Ah, sod ‘em. Strangers arguing is not something you should put up with on public transport if you don’t want to.
The problem with this rationale is that it’s very similar to that of Lady Two, who rightly or wrongly felt aggrieved, and is clearly somebody who stands up for herself in such situations. She’s probably writing an outraged blog post of her own right now. In this particular case though, the aggressive manner in which she responded to Lady One shattered the fragile calm of our tube carriage. Her “I’ll say what I like” style protestations are scarily reminiscent of many of the more unpleasant Big Brother housemates. “Yeah, well, I don’t care if I’m pissing everyone else off, if I don’t like someone I’ll tell it to their face, I don’t go behind their back. You get me?”
Speaking as someone who doesn’t want to live in an anarchic world where everyone is at constant loggerheads, I think talking about people behind their backs is underrated. We all have bad thoughts about our fellow men from time to time - I’m certainly guilty as charged - but we don’t all want to go through life drawing up an endless enemies list, and therefore we moderate what we say depending on the situation and the company. Being “honest” and being a prick are often the same thing. We’re all going to hell as a society, as I’ve already noted. But at least some of us are intending to stay around the outer circles.
Comments