It has come to my attention that the American Atheist Association are having trouble framing a hugging policy for their conference. Due to the fear of opportunists copping a free feel as one person put it or perhaps the descent into a welter of touchy feely, the committee are proposing a secular ‘noli me tangere’. How is one to express a modest level of approbation in a dignified manner? A standard greeting might be appropriate.
Greeting: Rational Beliefs
Response: Reasonably Held
This could be accompanied by a level salute, palm down from the chest representing the order and tranquillity of reason.
Alternatively when collecting name badges one could get a little decal of a teddy bear that signalled openness to a hug. One could have a crossed out bear to express disinclination.
2 comments:
I can't recall when hugging became not only the ubiquitous but also the nearly obligatory greeting/parting gesture in America. I'm thinking maybe it was the eighties, signifying the tyranny of extraversion as socially normative. I like the French bisous better: air kisses across the cheeks without actually touching. Please tell me the Irish don't go in for all of this hugging business.
Within my own family kissing and hugging seems to have been taken up. I blame my sisters. Outside families in general not so much as far as I can see, urban sophisticates air kiss, ladies only. Firm handshakes, old style between men on introduction, minimal eye contact. No mass hugs on the Gaelic games pitches, that is a phenomenon of foreign codes. There was great hilarity when our midlands Biffo Prime Minister (big ignorant fucker from Offaly) was embraced and kissed by Sarkozy. Too much, too soon. The shock on his face - 'has this fella an accent wall?'
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