Assholes are Everywhere!

Greetings all,

I went out last night and had chatted up with someone and we briefly mentioned the topic of people. Being that I've lived in Hamilton most of my life, Burlington for 2 years, Toronto for almost 1 year and a 4 month stint in Yellowknife, he asked me if I noticed a difference between Hamilton/Burlington people and Toronto people.

I'd have to say yes to some degree because I am meeting more creative people here and I find people are more articulate in the city (based on my observations of listening to people talk on the street car).

But I think people are the same everywhere in the world. There are nice people and then there are assholes. I don't care how small a smalltown is, I'm sure there's at least 2-3 people who are assholes and that nobody likes!

I've met some interesting people in Hamilton and Burlington but I've met some crazies and ignorant types. I've worked in a lot of factories in my 20s so I definitely met a lot of these 'redneck' types. They might be ignorant but I think they are harmless and decent for the most part.

I think since the city has a larger population, it probably just seems that there are more assholes but I think there is probably some asshole ratio. Like for every 12 people, there is one asshole. I'm not sure how one can calculate this as assholes tend to stick together.

I remember when I was in Barcelona, there were 3 backpackers from either England or Scotland and they were assholes. They were staying in my room (I was in a co-ed dorm room) and I didn't like their vibe. So maybe my guess should be based on asshole clusters. How many asshole clusters exist in a group of people?

There maybe were a hundred people at the hostel I was staying at so the ratio of assholes would be 3:100 or 3%. That sounds about right doesn't it??!!

So if we look at the present population of approximately 6 billion, 3% of that is 180 000 000 (180 million). So that is how many assholes everyone on this planet is dealing with. It seems to correspond closely to the book by Martha Stout "The Sociopath Next Door" which says 1 in 25 Americans are sociopaths (4% of their population).

I would think though maybe my guess is low since every sociopath must be an asshole but not all assholes are sociopaths. The book mentions in Japan, the sociopath rate is under 2% and it is probably because their society is more socialistic and so sociopathic behaviour is deemed more inappropriate.