Pomposity

Why do we get so upset by pomposity? Isn't it odd?

I mean, we see a pompous, jumped up twat and think "what a prick that person is?", but why should it needle us?

Surely, you'd have to feel sorry for a person who was so ungracious, or so disconnected from others.

So why should anyone take it so personally?

It's so weird, when you think about it, that we should be pissed off, resentful, or feel anything about the imperfections of others while we're imperfect ourselves. Does that make sense?

Look at Oscar Wilde, whom so many people hated for his wit. In many respects, he played the pompous game really well. Look at how much it pissed of the Marquess of Queensbury, after all.

I think perhaps what pompousness really represents is disrespect.

But then again, why get pissed off by someone who has no respect, when we know perfectly well that they're the ones that are missing out on life?

Aren't there better things to do, after all, than to worry about the pomposity and loneliness of some twat? Or is it that there's some deeper issue, that's actually in us?

I think it's actually far less healthy, personally, to fear being thought of as pompous, or to be obsessed with another's pomposity, than to actually be thought of as pompous, even if I was.

But again, that's me.

I remember a scene in The Godfather, when the big movie producer tells Tom Hagen that he "doesn't like to be made to look ridiculous", and I think here's the key. Many people become so obsessed with image, and the need to look cool or kind or dangerous or successful or whatever it is, rather than simply be who they are.

Pompousness only effects a person who has an issue with it. The pompous person actually doesn't really come across as pompous to another person, necessarily, in fact. Another person might see a pompous person us just lonely, or with low self esteem.

So I think that pomposity is, like anything else, in the eye of the beholder.