Psycho Killer, Qu'est-ce que c'est?

I hate people when they’re not polite

What the hell am I blathering about? And what does it have to do with Mexico? And have I been in a Mexican prison for the last 3 months?

I’ll answer the last question first: no. Instead, the parent company of Mexico Listo - Mexico Listo Pacifico, S.A. de C.V. underwent a major restructuring and put all its employees on unpaid leave until the dust settled. Or maybe I just had writer’s block - who knows? Truth is a chimeric thing these days. But the good news is: I can’t promise an article for next week. What a wonderful world.

Now on to the first two questions. The title and subtitle of this post, as all you pre-millennials are well aware, come from the Talking Heads song “Psycho Killer”. What it has to do with Mexico is, well, quite a stretch. Bear with me.

This morning as I was tending my masochistic side by perusing the news, I came upon a Vox article titled Are we in a crisis of rudeness? “We”, of course, in the context of this article, refers to Americans from America, which is another word for the United States of America, and, as any schoolchild could tell you, is the center of the known universe and really the only place on the planet that matters. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Or perhaps behind. Anyway, I’m off track. Back to reality: we USAmericans are straddling a fine line along a cliff of incivility (again, according to the hacks at Vox).

I suppose I agree with those hacks at Vox, though. The U.S. is becoming more and more a nation obsessed with its own navel and keeping random interactions with strangers at a safe distance (and, hopefully, well-covered by a loaded AR-15). The navel-gazing, stranger-hating nature of my compatriots up north is, as well, an attitude that fosters efficiency: who has time to say “please” and “thank you” and “how are you?” when there are hot lattes on the line, and a boardroom full of trillionaires to keep from firing you for not delivering your latest AI-spewed spreadsheets and (gasp!) PowerPoint decks on time? “Hurry the fuck up, I’m late” is really the only meaningful interaction a self-respecting salary person should have with the plebs steaming their oat milk.

Here under the relentless Mexican Pacific coast sun, I rarely encounter behavior that I could describe as “rude” - even when applying the most liberal definition of that term. “Rarely”, of course, implies that I do encounter it - I’m no pollyanna gringo selfie-flecting under the colorful papel picado and TikTok’ing to the world how Mexico is all rainbows and mariposas and smiling people inviting you into their homes to share their family dinner with you. Mexico is not immune to bad behavior - nor even to outright rudeness! But Mexico makes up for that rudeness by, well, not having a lot of it. Which is to say, it is rare. Noticeably, inarguably (stop arguing!) less than in the land of Milk and Stars and Honey and Stripes and Big Houses and Greed and Damnit Can’t You Deliver My Uber Eats Order A Little Faster I Mean Are You Stupid Or Just Lazy No Tip For You.

On the other hand, I didn’t get much sleep last night. But I don’t think I need to tell you that, you can read between the lines.

But what I lack in wakefulness, I make up for in sobriety. So believe my un-drunk self when I say that rudeness is far and away the exception. Politeness - niceties - are built into the fabric of Mexican society. The fact that one can unironically say “Hola, buenos días, cómo estás?” to literally every complete stranger you pass on the street and receive a similar reply is, to my sunburnt brain, the foundation upon which a civilization co-exists with itself without bending over backwards to out-rude one another.

One of the points that the Vox article makes is that USAmericans are experiencing a “crisis of attention” - meaning you’re all so obsessed with what is on your screens you can’t be interrupted by interactions with physical beings. And Mexico is not immune to this phenomenon - people staring down, scrolling, drowning in the feedback loop. But for some reason - maybe it’s the uneven pavement, the broken sidewalks, the damn topes - people in Mexico still look up. God bless them for that. I hope it stays that way.