The dawn of a new age
Las Vegas is probably the last place you’d expect to see the start of a revolution so maybe it’s been going on all along. You tell me. Here’s what happened: during several cab rides, the conversations between the driver and the dispatcher were remarkably cordial — I mean remarkably.
They called each other sir and ma’am and they said please and thank you. Dispatchers. Cabbies. What is the world coming to?
It’s even a little bit of a disappointment for one who has rather enjoyed listening to the screaming matches between drivers and dispatchers from time to time. But there are compensations. For instance, there was one muted exchange after a driver finally admitted to the dispatcher that he wasn’t going to be able to pick up a fare on time — even though the appointment had been made the day before. The sirs and the ma’ms flew back and forth spit out between clenched teeth, escalating through cadence, tone, and aspiration. Sir, you have had this appointment on your book since yesterday. Yes, Ma’am but I can’t get there in time, that’s why I’m telling you now. These words are nothing on the page, but through the deft use of fraught silence and well placed emphasis they were daggers hurled across the air waves. Finally, the dispatcher unleashed her ultimate weapon — the one that must never be abused, the boss. Sir, please call Mr. Frangipani at your earliest convenience. The meek rejoinder, yes, Ma’am.
Cab rides have changed, and in the end it can’t possibly be a bad thing. In fact, it’s part of a larger thing. At some recent point in time, management manuals were updated to include the basic rules of behavior we were supposed to learn in childhood but lost on the playground, the basketball court, the convenience store, through haste and efficiency, and language differences. What didn’t drift away in thoughtless daily exchange, was beaten out of us by the TV shows, movies, and games that promised to show us reality but actually created their own.
But maybe the tide is being turned. If Las Vegas cab drivers can change, cab drivers, those stressed out souls who must deal with the late night drunks, despair in the morning, madly euphoric tourists, and people just trying to get to work on time. Well then, change is definitely possible.
Politeness and kindness might not end wars or violence, but the effort to control one’s temper and maintain civility can certainly delay the festivities. When one is forbidden the easy expletive and rude gesture, carefully chosen words have to be used and in the end actual information is likely to be communicated and points of view exchanged.
There is a great temptation to attribute all this to a new administration and maybe that is an influence. If we see our leaders carefully choosing words and avoiding inflammatory rhetoric, the least we can do is say hello to the grocery store checker. Maybe the change has come as part of a general movement away from the quick draw and snappy rejoinder to more complex interactions because there’s a general recognition that hard problems require hard work. After all you don’t change the culture of cab drivers over night.
It certainly seems to me that people in general are being more polite and helpful to one another, and that too doesn’t happen over night or with one election. In fact, let’s hope it is something deeper that lasts a little longer than an election cycle or two. There’s so much more work to be done and getting to a destination in peace is just one little step.
