The pointlessness of glurge
Jun. 29th, 2010 12:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
logansrogueThere's this thing on Snopes they call "glurge". It's gooey-feel-good stuff that, at its heart, doesn't live up to the promise. It's the sort of thing that's supposed to make you smile and have hope for the human race. Chicken Soup for the Soul, etc. Something never seems to ring true about it. It's nice, but like candy, it's missing some real substance.
One of those stories is "Paying it forward". Someone pays for their coffee, then says, "Hey, I'll pay for the coffee for the person behind me!" And then that person is so happy that THEY pay for the person behind them, and so-on and so forth for a few people. Let's break this shit down:
- The coffees are still paid for. Everyone is just paying for everyone else's coffee. They'd save each other the fuss if they just paid for their own friggin' coffee.
- What if the person behind them is having a real hoi-polloi, fruity-tutti bizarro double-frap-machi-cappi-fluffichino coffee that costs way more than a regular coffee? The karmic balance is then off kilter.
- How do they know what the coffee of the person yet to pay for their coffee is going to cost? That person hasn't ordered yet. What if their order is more than what KindlyPerson has put down?
- What if the person behind them didn't order coffee? What if they ordered a muffin?
- This story seems to ride on the fact that other people are paying for other people's coffees. What if someone can't afford to pay for anyone else's coffee, and they break the chain? Are they an asshole? The asshole who broke the chain?
Clearly, I overthink these things.
One of those stories is "Paying it forward". Someone pays for their coffee, then says, "Hey, I'll pay for the coffee for the person behind me!" And then that person is so happy that THEY pay for the person behind them, and so-on and so forth for a few people. Let's break this shit down:
- The coffees are still paid for. Everyone is just paying for everyone else's coffee. They'd save each other the fuss if they just paid for their own friggin' coffee.
- What if the person behind them is having a real hoi-polloi, fruity-tutti bizarro double-frap-machi-cappi-fluffichino coffee that costs way more than a regular coffee? The karmic balance is then off kilter.
- How do they know what the coffee of the person yet to pay for their coffee is going to cost? That person hasn't ordered yet. What if their order is more than what KindlyPerson has put down?
- What if the person behind them didn't order coffee? What if they ordered a muffin?
- This story seems to ride on the fact that other people are paying for other people's coffees. What if someone can't afford to pay for anyone else's coffee, and they break the chain? Are they an asshole? The asshole who broke the chain?
Clearly, I overthink these things.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-29 04:22 am (UTC)About as annoying as "buy this product you don't need and half a cent gets donated to x" when you don't need the overpriced gadget/landfill fodder in the first place and would be better off giving all that money to a worthy cause and not buying the THING at all. Then again people say the average joe needs "fun things like that" to get interested in "giving" at all. I suspect people really just need to grow up and, y'know, actually give. Likely it might hurt a little bit, but things that are worth while typically have a real price like that.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-29 10:54 am (UTC)Same thing with Starbucks' Ethos water. What's that? Five cents? Three cents? From a friggin' two-dollar bottle of water that cost a small fraction of those two dollars to manufacture and ship? That's a real half-assed way of "caring." I'd like to see those Starbucks CEOs take a month or three off from their jobs to go and build houses for Habitat for Humanity or something.
The thing about growing up for the average Joe is that it actually entails caring less about the world around hir year by year. In kindergarten, we're taught to share and care for selves and others, and by the time middle school comes around, it's already dog-eat-dog. Some people wake up in high school or college, but most stay completely self-absorbed. Many of those who learn to give and share once again are of the impression that all they have to do is write a big check to someone (or buy that overpriced Crappuccino).
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-29 04:26 am (UTC)Kinda crazy if you ask me. I want my triple fat lardo cap with soy thanks.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-29 04:26 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-29 04:45 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-29 04:49 am (UTC)I like to think of it as casting good karmic buildup out into the world. I do it because there were many, many people who were involved in my being alive and happy as I am, at 44; by far the majority I will never encounter again, and can thus never pay them back.
So instead I pay it forward: I repay them as best I can, by giving out the good deeds they gave me.
I do agree, though, that the Snopes examples tend to be of a revolting and pointlessly self-congratulatory nature.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-29 11:16 am (UTC)It's just when certain good acts become viral, like this one, and there's a certain undercurrent to it that leaves me uncomfortable. I can't explain it.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-30 03:43 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-30 08:42 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-07-02 05:18 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-07-02 10:06 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-29 10:43 am (UTC)I see your points, though. I think "paying it forward" sounds a lot better when visualized as a massage circle, each person massaging the person in front of hir.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-29 11:07 am (UTC)Sometimes, even poor people like to go for a coffee. Sometimes we can't just unthinkingly pay for whatever, we don't have the spare cash, we have to budget down to the last cent. But we still like to go to a nice cafe and have a proper cafe coffee.
There's a privilege of wealth in this tale that makes it an impossibility for some, and I was merely pointing it out.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-29 11:23 am (UTC)In any case, I imagine that most people in that 10-20 cent margin would carefully calculate their budgets to make sure that cup of coffee really is affordable for themselves, which would make paying it forward to someone who wants the triple mocha latte with methamphetamine sprinkles kind of ridiculous, like you said. I certainly agree with you there. If anyone dared to call us assholes, I'd smack 'em.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-29 11:25 am (UTC)These days, my caffiene intolerance has made it so that all I ever drink when I go out is fruit juice or fruity soft-drinks.
I figured you probably knew where I was coming from. :-P
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-29 05:58 pm (UTC)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_act_of_kindness
This phrase used to be stencilled all over Manchester
Practice acts of random kindness and senseless acts of beauty..
The other is more of a commercial transaction, like buying indulgances.