Spewing word vomit into someone's ear by asking them, what do you do for a living, is not only rude based on GP alone, but also because it is the disguised nosy neighbor all-up-in-your-biznes way of asking, Where Do You Get Your Money From. Let Me Estimate How Much Money You Make, So I Can Compare Myself To You.
I wish I knew then what I know now about people. I would have responded to that many-times-asked question with a few questions of my own, What Do You Do For Self-Esteem? Or What Color Is Your Underwear?You can be certain they'll look at you like you're the one who is crazy as hell
If they don't just walk away, which is what you want, then they'll stay and say something like, that's perverted. Or they'll say, that's very personal isn't it?
And then you'll say, Exactly! My response to your question is the same as your response to my question. The additional crazy part of asking someone what they do for a living, is that it is our weak miseducated way of what we think is a conversation starter.
But we know better, and know it is our way of disguising our discomfort and low social skills.
We keep doing it because we've learned through practice and experience that it is also a sneaky way of judging who a person is and what their value is and how much respect they deserve.
We mistakenly use the question as a way of knowing who the person is because, what we oursleves do for a living is how we define ourselves and who we are, our worth, thus is how we relate to other people.
All this is totally fekht up and stuck on cultural mental illness.
Okay, perhaps I'll soften my response and just say, I sell drugs and guns for a living.
Then I'll hesitate and wait for their follow-up non-verbal reaction and/or verbal response.
Then, no matter what they say or do, the next words out of my mouth will be, I do it just like the pharmaceutical industry and gun manufacturers, and for the same reasons.
Another pause and another response from them.
Then I'll say, because I can, and to make lots of conscience-less money from the less intelligent.
A very brief pause as I'm watching their brain freeze on not knowing how to respond.
Then I'll immediately add, I make a living by making a killing.
If you need to know what I do for a living, in order to know how to talk to me, then you're not interested in having a conversation. Instead you are conducting an interrogation.
And if I never get invited to places where I am required to have small talk and chit chat in order to get invited back, then those places are a waste, because they do not enhance my spirit, my soul, my path of purposes as to why I was brought forth into this world at this time under these conditions.
Do it to see if it is what you do for a living that is important to them or is it that you go along with the requirement to be compliant and courteous to someone barging their way into your personal private space by inquiring about how are you paying the bills.
Listen people! It is better to simply ask people who they know at this gathering or did you grow up around here. This should be enough to get the chit chat ball rolling while not being invasive. Or you could put in a little extra effort and if you notice something about the person, you could start there, while being careful not to be invasive rather than thinking it's okay, because everyone does it, to carelessly without a care, ask someone you don't know or just met, what do you do for a living. Tell me or I'm going to tell everyone else, you are the one being rude, because I didn't mean any harm by asking an innocent question. I was just trying to be cordial and friendly.
The hell you say!
So I now ask you that same type of innocent question, how do you live with that making sense?
You might as well ask, do you rent or own your car or house?
