Coop's Corner: Is it the 'Me Generation' on DSL?
That used to send me into near homicidal rages. But I now simply accept aggressive driving behavior as just one of the natural hazards associated with living in dotcom dominated traffic zones. San Francisco and its environs are flush with folks who have profited mightily by working for Internet companies. And judging from the mix of road traffic, a lot of them prefer autos that could double for armored personnel carriers.
You'll see much the same thing in Cambridge, Mass., New York City and the suburbs around Washington, D.C. -- all regions where the Web has put a lot of cash into peoples' pockets -- where rules of road courtesy are, well, optional at best.
But the SUV has become portrayed as the emblem of the national media's fascination with the doings of dotcoms. The picture being drawn is one of a bunch of cell-phone toting, beeper-ridden, cyber-selfish toads who get off by comparing the size of their PDAs. At best, they are congenital cads; at worst, simply rude beyond belief.
One day soon I expect some enterprising headline writer will dub this the Me Generation on DSL.
This is curious stuff.
The dotcoms surely make inviting targets for ridicule. But as with all generalizations, there's the hype and then there's the reality. Are the new cyber elites really more ill-mannered than other people in this great, big country?
Last time I checked, Meg Whitman wasn't calling any business rival a "scumbag." And yet that's what a certain congressman -- a congressman! -- publicly said about the president of the United States. The most insulting thing I recall Bill Gates ever saying was that a certain so-and-so he disagreed with just wasn't "technical." Maybe that rates as a "yo mama wears army boots" among geeks. The rest of us civilians would shrug it off.
The simple fact is that people with disposable income are going to buy the latest toys, a fact that gets under some peoples' skin. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal quoted a certain Darlene Lutz, who was particularly bent out of shape by selfish cell-phone users. "People walk down the street glued to their cell phones, their beepers and their PalmPilots," she told the newspaper. "They don't care who is around them."
Ms. Lutz, identified as a New York art advisor, has obviously spent too much time in the 'burbs. As a born-and-bred New Yorker I can tell you I don't want people walking toward me to start cheery conversations about water lillies. Maybe that stuff is a nice way to break the ice in Marietta, Ga., but that'll only elicit incredulous stares in the Big Apple.
The real issue is better taken up by psychologists. There is something that's particularly American about rooting for obnoxious hot shots to fail. 'Fess up: Weren't you thrilled beyond belief when the New York Mets gave Rickey Henderson his walking papers last week. And for a while, didn't you believe celestial justice was back in style after The Donald's fortunes (temporarily) went south?
Arrogant dotcommies there surely are. But bad manners didn't get invented in Silicon Valley or the other pockets of cyber good fortune around the country. Civility may be going out of style. But you'll have to probe much deeper to find the real answer.
And if you don't agree, go stuff yourself!