There was this crazy, militant Osama-follower talking about how evil Westerners were and how we deserve anything that happens to us. Why? Because we had supposedly done all these terrible things to “his” people. (He was actually just a British dude who had adopted these extremist views as an adult.)
As we were watching I came to a realization and said it out loud: “I know what’s going on here: This is a case of the roommate rationale to the highest degree!”
What is the roommate rationale? Well it’s only one of Writinggal’s favorite, most important theories:
I first witnessed it freshman year of college when I went to visit a friend at a dorm near mine. She had just gone shopping and she put the bags all over her pot-luck roommate’s bed. I asked, “Is she gonna get mad because she can’t sit on her bed?”
“She better not,” my friend said. “She uses my computer all the time without asking.”
Oh, I guess that makes sense.
But here’s what ends up happening; roommates rationalize all their behavior by reminding themselves of something the other person did:
“She made a lot of noise getting ready yesterday morning so it’s okay if I come in late and wake her up.”
“Why should I have to ask her if it’s okay if I get three cats? Her boyfriend is always here.”
“She borrowed my dress without asking. I’m gonna borrow her boyfriend.”
But see, they never tell the other person about their rationlizations so, to the rooomate, it just seems like she's doing these rude things. That is why I blame the RR for the “psycho roommate” phenomenon. In college we heard this phrase a lot and our jaws dropped in horror at stories like, “She stole all my underwear!” Now that’s weird but come on, you didn’t do ANYTHING to provoke her? Even something as small as not replacing the toilet paper roll?
I think there’s some chicken and the egg involved here too but I can’t take credit for that theory.
But you could see how entire wars could be fought over the RR. Although it usually only happens to girls. This is because girls don’t say what’s bothering them. If it were guy roommates then one of them would have said from the beginning: “Hey, dude. Quit using my computer,” and saved everybody a whole lot of anguish.
And what became of the roommates who inspired my theory? Shopping bag girl ended up moving out on computer-borrowing girl--just up and left one weekend while the other girl was away.
Well, at least they both got some good “psycho roommate” stories out of the experience.
Reuniting with my non-psycho college roomies (I'm pretty sure nobody stole anybody's underwear but I'll check.)
2 comments:
I had the roommate with the shrine to her high school boyfriend who listened to Richard Marx "Right Here Waiting" incessantly because that's the song that was playing after they did it for the first time. She moved out over Christmas and didn't tell me. It was excellent.
Coulda been worse. Coulda been Bryan Adams.
Hmmm, on second thought. Maybe that's a toss up.
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