Free-for-all

What I am really tired of is the constant interaction with insane people. People assume things are free, and then when they find out that you have to pay good money for a product you want, they want me to ask my "manager" to give it to them free. What are they on?

There was a time in my life when I had never heard of this practice of asking for things for free. I mean, yes, I am Jewish, but the way I was raised we paid for things we bought. I resent that stereotype of course, that Jews bargain. Of course it is poppycock, along with all other stereotypes. But stereotypes have a kernel of truth, and that is how they begin. People from Eastern Europe tend to bargain, since it is the practice in some Eastern European countries to do so, even with the grocer. My family is very American, my Polish roots are far removed. (And if you know me, you know the whole long story, but I won't go into it here.) Of course many Jews that emigrated to to States from Eastern Europe, and the stereotype became rumor, became legend, became "fact". There is more to it than that, I am oversimplifying. Of course this and other Jew/money stereotypes were mainstays of Nazi philosophy during the holocaust era.

I have seen a good description of where this can lead in a few different places, once in a Telushkin book, and also on the Stutz family website. These stereotypes are not just false, but dangerous.

The first step of this continuum is discrimination - treating certain groups of people differently.

The second step is isolation, such as the physical segregation of minorities in ghettos or setting up separate schools.

The third step is persecution, followed by dehumanization and violence. Genocide, the deliberate and systematic extermination of a group of people, is the ultimate expression of human hatred.

In any case, it seems that I am getting a bit lost on a tangent, as I tend to. People want things for free. Not any certain ethnic contingency, either. Eash world ethnic group, religion, and country has idiot representation. I These people bother me. I went to college with a guy who came from Ukraine when he was two years old. We did a project together that required some office supplies and, as it happens, a chair. These things were not readily available to us, and money was (as it always is when you are in college) in short supply. I don't think stealing occurred to us at the time. He went to a certain office supply store and just asked for free stuff. Lo and behold he returned with the free stuff, as proud as could be. I later took every opportunity to watch him in action...I think the rapport he built with people, and his brazen chutzpah warmed these retail souls so deeply that they felt moved to give. I never had the inclination to learn this particular sport.