The sign says there is no ice cream today. A technical problem independent of their will. It is reassuring to learn they do not deliberately sabotage their freezer.
The staff is talking with a customer. They are on a first name basis and the subject of the day are the latest protests against the government. He tells of a documentary about English soccer hooligans. Apparently some are managers and entrepreneurs during the week. Some powerful men go see a dominatrix, others riot on the weekend. Looking for absolution. Just goes to show, despite the stereotype, the troublemakers aren’t the unwashed unemployed.
He has turned an anecdote into a generalization.
The quality of their discussion degenerates.“I heard that…”“I saw on the internet that…”
How am I to become more social if this is the type of conversations people have?
I go for lunch with Newsy. I use the overheard conversation as an example of how news gets deformed. I make a joke about how it feeds my misanthropy. It turns out that calling myself a misanthrope isn’t funny. She agrees, without hesitation.
