Scum

[rowyn]

"What are you talking about?" I asked the co-workers who were chatting near my cubicle.

The two women laughed. "Jerry* asked us a question, but he doesn't like our answer."

Jerry looked at me. "How many men would you say -- just in general, not specific ones you know -- are scum?"

I considered. "I dunno ... 5%?"

The other women giggled, while Jerry gestured to me. "See, there's an optimist."

"I said 50%," Michelle told me.

Lee offered, "65%."

I stared. "Really?"

"I'd say about the same for women," Michelle added. Lee's estimate on women was a bit lower, 50% or so.

"What about you, Jerry?" I asked him.

"I don't know. 30%? Hmmm. Maybe 2 in 10," he decided. "For both sexes."

*

I'm not sure if the wild variations in our estimates are because I'm generally kinder in evaluating people (it is awfully hard to make me feel like a person is actually bad or malign) or because they had a different idea of what was meant by scum. What about you -- how many people do you think are scum? And what qualifies a person as scum or not?

* No real names used here.

Comments

[verminiusrex.livejournal.com]

I think it's more of a sliding scale, so most people aren't scum all the time, but a percentage of the time. Then the question becomes, just how much scum can a person be before you consider them a full time scum? Or what level of scum when they are actively being scummy would make them full time scum to you?

You can also have limited interaction with some people that may be considered scum, but avoid the scummy parts of their life. There are people that I know but wouldn't party with, because that means binge drinking and drugs.

And the definition of scum varies too much. Llike I once said, there is a difference between a slacker and a loser. A slacker will get a job when there are no other options, a loser won't. Some people would label both as scum, whereas I see scum as something more vile that you would rather see run over by a bulldozer than continue to exist.

Now you have me pondering the definition of "scum" way too much. I suspect it will become a topic of conversation at a future social gathering.

[rowyn]

I've been thinking of doing another post about what I think of when I think of 'scum'.