Man, I'm gonna go full Ivanova someday...

[elfs]

I was waiting in line at the local pharmacy, locate in the back of a Safeway supermarket. Omaha needed a refill on two of her heart medications, and they had assured me they'd be ready by 5pm. One gentleman was ahead of me. He was just finishing the "first use" consultation with the pharmacist and I was ready to step up when a woman with wild, dirty-blond hair and a ragged flannel shirt leapt in front of me. "Ma'am," I said, "You have to get behind this line." I pointed to the line that you're supposed to stand behind "for the privacy of those receiving consultation."

"No I don't," she said.

I goggled. What is it with some people? I swear, I'm too repressed. When the man in front of me was done, she immediately occupied the consultation area and demanded that the pharmacist "give me my water pills!" She opened a clenched fist and showed a handful of yellow gelatin capsules. "They're just like these, but they're white!" She was loud, overbearing, but not angry. Just insistent as the damned. She ticced and hopped back and forth from foot to foot, unable to sit still.

The pharmacist said she didn't have a prescription for water pills for this woman. "Well, I got them at Freddy's!" The pharmacist suggested that maybe the pharmacist at Freddy's, another shop across town, would have that prescription, but they didn't have a copy here. "Well, my doctor gave me a prescription for water pills, and I have to have them!"

After several go-rounds, the pharmacist was able to convince her that there was no prescription for water pills at that pharmacy. "Well, give me the rest." The assistant pharmacist rang up three prescriptions in a row. Total price, visible on the register: $3.30.

The woman whipped out a Safeway gift card. It had no money on it. Either that, or she didn't know the PIN. I never did find out which. She got very agitated, but was finally mollified to be sent to the front of the supermarket, where she could hash out the card problem with customer service.

I was stalking furious; why do some people feel they can violate the social norms and customs of human decency in this way? Especially with so many witnesses.

p.s. I am informed that it was Marcus, and not Ivanova, who had the exchange:

Lennier: "They trained you well on Minbar."
Marcus: "They said I had a lot of repressed anger."
Lennier: "And now?"
Marcus: "I'm not repressed anymore!"

Comments

[shockwave77598.livejournal.com]

Buy a can of deoderant and spray it around her. Not at her, around her. She'll complain!

"Stop that!"
"If you don't have to wait in line, I don't have to show you any courtesy either."

You'll be out a cost of a can of deoderant. But some people -- even batass crazies like this woman -- can learn no other way.

[ionotter.livejournal.com]

There is a very good series of documentaries that explain this sort of behavior? I think you might enjoy them.

The Century of the Self: Happiness Machines (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmha8GmPxE4)

The Century of the Self: The Engineering of Consent (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tenfbDqiDns)

The Century of the Self: There is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads - He Must Be Destroyed (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsbORjWqRzw)

The Century of the Self: Eight People Sipping Wine in Kettering (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BkVM6Sxd8c&playnext=1&list=PLDD4C5AB1669AAD59) (Unfortunately, this one is in six parts from a different poster.

I downloaded three sets from this author? TCotS, The Power of Nightmares and The Trap: What Happened To Our Dreams of Freedom?

TPoN is both profound and frightening. The last 35 years have been nothing but a fiction, created to destroy the Soviet Union. But as with all fiction designed to cause fear or destroy, it became reality.

[lovingboth]

Oh, Adam's fabulous. His bbc.co.uk blog is worth reading too.

[shunra.livejournal.com]

seconded. Century of the Self is well worth the four hours I spent watching it on the morning before Christmas.

The Google Video version is less interrupted than the Youtube.

[shunra.livejournal.com]

It is a cheerful reminder that there *are* social norms & customs of human decency here. They're getting eroded, but at least they exist.

::ponders one's childhood, shudders::

They most definitely do not exist everywhere. Life without them is quite horrid.

[rick-bannerman.livejournal.com]

And as soon as I saw the headline I _did_ start remembering favorite Ivanova moments.

It's been a few years; perhaps it is time to rewatch the whole series.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

"I don't watch TV. It's a cultural wasteland filled with inappropriate metaphors and an unrealistic portrayal of life created by the liberal media elite." - Unnamed guard, to Garibaldi.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

"Ivanova is always right. I will listen to Ivanova. I will not ignore Ivanova's recommendations. Ivanova is God. And if this ever happens again, Ivanova will personally rip your lungs out!"

(beat)

(looking ceilingward) Sorry about the G-d part.

I thought going Ivanova on her would've been a reasonably appropriate response. But then, I get a little unreasonable when faced with behaviour like that. (And here I am spelling like a Brit... :)

[lovingboth]

In this case, I'd say it's because she's mad. Or whatever the clinical term is. ('Batshit crazy', probably.)

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

I have it on reasonable authority that that is an unofficial technical term.

[davidlevine]

In this case I'd say it's not "willful violation of the social norms" but rather "mental illness." Everything you've mentioned -- her wild hair and clothing, her barging in line, her insistence on fulfillment of a nonexistent prescription, her attempting to pay with an invalid gift card -- is consistent with someone who's lost their grasp on reality. This person needs professional help, not your fury.

[urox.livejournal.com]

I would have called her out. When the person who was originally in line in front of me was done, I would have let the pharmacist know that the woman did not wait in line and that I was next.

Wild hair and dirty shirt don't sound crazy to me. They say lazy to me (as one who does not always put on the nicest of clothing for errands about town). While I might attribute a tic toward crazy, other behaviors are not. Social "norms" are constantly violated in this day and age of "me first" and her insistence appears to be standard to me. The only people to enforce them is ourselves.

[bldrnrpdx.livejournal.com]

Wild hair and dirty shirt are part of some kinds of crazy. She sounds like someone whose social norms and inhibitions have eroded due to any number of reasons. Brain injury, abuse, drug abuse, progressive mental illness all come to mind.
Or maybe the social norms and inhibitions weren't there in the first place for her - some folks have a great deal of difficulty understanding social norms and understanding why they matter. Some of the kids I work with will probably grow up like that. In my own family there's a history of cyclical depression and bipolar disorder, with at least one member of my family having serious difficulty with certain aspects of social interactions and with certain kinds of self-care. The person Elf described almost sounds like this member of my family on a really bad day.

Or maybe she's just lazy and selfish.
I hope when I'm having a bad bipolar day, I'm not next to you in line. Though I promise I'll do my best to keep my crazy to myself.

[urox.livejournal.com]

Perhaps you know more than I do about these specific traits grouped together. I only have personal familiarity with other crazy trait groupings in my family. And I wouldn't hesitate to tell them that their actions were unacceptable with that kind of behavior.

I think you misunderstood when I mentioned lazy. I was trying to point out that sometimes *I* am lazy and don't do anything about my appearance to run errands. It happens. And I have seen perfectly okay appearance people exhibiting the entitlement behavior I read above.

But perhaps you know more than I do. And I hope on those days I'm deeper in my personal mental illness, I won't read too much into your comments.

[tagryn]

+1
I wasn't there, but the inability to comprehend she was at the wrong pharmacy and trying to use a gift card from another store suggest a slight disconnect from reality, at the least.

[grum]

A remarkably common disconnect. Says the pharmacist.

The pharmacist is probably just as annoyed at this interaction as Elf, but knows that if they try to enoforce social norms all they will get for their troubles is a conversation with their boss after the person complains as high up the corporate ladder as they can figure out how to reach.

RRRGH!

[anthologie.livejournal.com]

As someone who sees this kind of behavior/appearance pretty often in San Francisco, I concur.

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

I was stalking furious; why do some people feel they can violate the social norms and customs of human decency in this way? Especially with so many witnesses.

In this case? Crystal Meth is a hell of a drug. I'd bet money.