“He was a nice guy,” I simply said.
“He is not a nice guy!” he sharply replied. A half smile was on his face; I wasn’t sure which way his point would turn. “He is absolutely not a nice guy! Do not make that mistake; he is absolutely not a nice guy!”
It was clear that he was not jesting.
“He’s a man who puts himself or others in danger when he does not get what he wants. He purposely harms himself to shift the dynamic in his favor. He molests children and preys upon those that cannot defend themselves. He causes more trouble for himself and everyone else by neglecting to register as a sex offender. He doesn’t have any second thoughts about hurting those around him to protect his own interests. He is not a nice guy.”
I actually knew all of this—I somehow hadn’t put it all together like that.
“Let me rephrase that,” I said sheepishly. “He was polite and well-mannered for the twenty minutes I interacted with him.”
25 Feb 2007 |
It’s hard when they don’t mean the same thing.
Comment by Lynn | 26 Feb 2007 @ 1:40am
reminds me of how one needs to speak to lawyers in a deposition. every word is a potential creative landmine. as my hero clinton once said, “it depends on what the definition of the word “is” is.”
Comment by aidan | 26 Feb 2007 @ 10:00am
Hello, there. I’m back in a First World country with wonderful things like comfortable beds and leisure time again, so Intueri is back on the menu. Huzzuh.
It’s so much easier to think that he is absolutely not a nice guy. That it’s impossible to be anything other than one person, one personality. If we start to think that he could be horrible and also be a nice guy… then it gets a whole lot harder to catagorise and judge him. And no one wants that.
Comment by rowan | 26 Feb 2007 @ 2:36pm
Until you put it like that . . .
Sometimes it is hard to seperate “nice” from “polite”.
Comment by catherine | 26 Feb 2007 @ 5:23pm
Many predators can be charismatic/charming, it seems to be part of the pathology. I would put many of the priests that are pedophiles in this category.
Comment by Terry | 26 Feb 2007 @ 6:06pm