Althouse: "I don't understand why he would feel any better looking at a dozen bald guys."

January 16, 2009

"I don't understand why he would feel any better looking at a dozen bald guys."

Where is the line between warm gesture of solidarity and scary peer pressure?

(Scroll to second item. First item is lurid.)

13 comments:

Bissage said...: Ridiculous.

What happens when some other co-worker gets a dickectomy?

Wasn’t anyone smart enough to think of buying the guy a $100 gift certificate to Red Lobster?

I smell a prank!; 1/16/09, 8:29 AM
Mark O said...: Lurid first item? It reads like the questions the Yalies used to send to Ann Landers.; 1/16/09, 8:36 AM
William said...: Maybe he could compromise and shave his pubic hair.; 1/16/09, 8:45 AM
Michael Haz said...: Items one and three were more amusing.

In item one, the divorce judge could look at the father and son and see two balled guys.; 1/16/09, 8:54 AM
traditionalguy said...: This is strange behavior. Who ever is pushing this head shaving should not be the group,s leader. This is not a high school football season. The cancer patient will be better served by not pointing him out, but by just being there with him thru the suffering.; 1/16/09, 9:24 AM
traditionalguy said...: The Lurid item was painful to read. Now all my problems look small compared to his. It seems like those Torah teachings, when kept, do lead to a better life in the here and now.; 1/16/09, 9:43 AM
knox said...: Ah, office dynamics! I've never been happier to be a freelancer.

We had a compulsive recycler at my last place of work.
'nuff said.; 1/16/09, 10:09 AM
chuck b. said...: The men who didn't really want to do this in the first place will be the ones who try to exert the most guilt and resentment on the hold-outs later on.; 1/16/09, 10:22 AM
knox said...: chuck b, astute observation.; 1/16/09, 10:25 AM
former law student said...: Did any of these clowns visit the guy in the hospital? Drive him to and from chemo? Bring dinner for his wife and kids to give her a break?

Does the guy even feel bad about losing his hair? Look at Sam the plumber's assistant. Shaving your head is a stunt that makes you look good without helping your associate one iota.

And as william suggests, all body hair is lost. The writer should pluck his eyebrows in solidarity.; 1/16/09, 10:44 AM
Anonymous said...: On the first item, I don't think "lurid" is the right description, perhaps "hilariously tragic."

Moving on office pressure to conform is often enormous. In such situations I just state that I have personal reasons that I don't want to explain for not going along with the crowd.; 1/16/09, 10:50 AM
HoTouPragmatosKurios said...: What a great way to have people avoid the first item -- telling us it is lurid. (It is.)

Next time say that it is tedious.; 1/16/09, 11:35 AM
Synova said...: Maybe I have an unusual resistance to peer pressure because I just don't see it.

And the guy (I'm assuming) who is not wanting to shave his head doesn't just want to not shave it, but wants the assurance from someone else that not shaving his head is the right response to someone who is bald from cancer treatment.

There is no standing his own ground going on there, it's conform to the baldness or conform get someone else to give him permission and support to keep his hair.

(The advice to the first person was decent, I'm impressed. Tell Dad in a sort of public place, and let the lawyer know.); 1/16/09, 3:46 PM