Flying with Dignity

I recently came across an article in the Daily Mail about how refined and glamorous air travel used to be, and this would appear to have been the standard into the 1970s. The men were attired in suits while the women wore elegant dresses that accentuated their femininity rather than their depravity. They were served food and drinks by glamorous young flight attendants. Must’ve been terrific.

My father told me that back in the 1950s when a man left for a business trip, his wife and kids could go right up to the plane to see him off. Young boys didn’t have screens and were thus captivated by large machinery, and thrilled at the opportunity to see it up close.

I remember flying in the 1990s and there still being the ashtray in the armrest, although smoking was obviously prohibited; by the time I was flying for any serious purpose it was after 9/11, so a world in which you travel unmolested (literally) is pretty much out of my paradigm. The worst is the United States, by far. Everyone else (but Israel) just does this because we make them, and they conduct the security procedures on the passengers in a more humane and dignified manner.

I probably shouldn’t even click on articles like this one and instead opt to accept my fate in this fallen world with grim determination. However, I’m plagued by an imagination. In other words, what’s possible rather than the obese black woman rubbing me with the back of her hand? I know that we could live better, and so the theoretical haunts my thoughts as I stand with my hands over my head with my belt off.

Imagine going to up to a GI getting ready to board a landing craft for Normandy beach, putting your hands up and telling him that he’s fighting so that we could do this when we get on a plane. He’d probably ask what the hell the paratroopers were worth if they were going to surrender before they even got strapped in. This shit is so crazy people can’t see the forest for the trees anymore.

I had to fly into San Francisco from overseas this past winter and a White female TSA agent had a golden retriever and was telling the arriving passengers to walk in pairs, in step with each other, like the bridesmaids and groomsmen at a wedding while she’d weave through with the dog. People were screwing it up as this is bizarre and confusing, especially if you don’t speak English. Actually, it doesn’t make any sense in any language. This old Korean lady panicked because her husband got pulled out, maybe she thought they’d take him for a cavity search or something.

One time, a flight attendant named “Rusty” asked me in his sincere gay voice if I’d like him to buckle my seat belt for me. No, Rusty, to get this thing off I don’t want to have to touch a buckle with AIDS on it.

Here’s an interesting quote:

In 1972, Southwest Airlines in Texas selected stewardesses on the basis of their physical appearance, saying they must be able to wear hot pants and leather boots or they wouldn’t get the job.

Oh, wow that’s deplorable. Who’d wish to live in a world where a young lady can’t have an OnlyFans account but she can get hired because she looks good in hot pants and leather boots? You can take this stuff pretty far, I mean pass through an airport in the Middle East where one dude has three or four women in burkas. They all sit in the departure lounge looking forward saying nothing. Then, he gets up and they all follow. Maybe that’s what it’d take to turn things around.

I get that on a long flight, a 3-piece suit ain’t the best attire. My travel attire is generally a polo shirt, jeans (no holes), and leather boat shoes. It’s comfortable but allows me to maintain my dignity. I’ve done many a 14+ hour flight and often 3 flights just to get to one final destination. A tropical 3rd world business trip is in my schedule and that’ll be my attire just like always. Someone from the company I’m working with will pick me up at the airport so I shouldn’t look like a bum. Are you a slob or a professional gentleman? Pick one and dress the part in all public settings.

A grown man doesn’t need to wear sweatpants and a neck pillow so he can feel cozy. I’ll actually wear sweatpants in the winter around my house, but this is in my home at night. As far as grown women are concerned, the yoga pants the Euro females wear for flights are so distracting. I’m not a pervert but this doesn’t make me a homosexual, either. How does this not draw your gaze while you have a beer in the terminal bar?

I don’t know what it is about a young woman that makes her incapable of understanding the meaning of “dressing provocatively” unless it’s some feminist nonsense she learned from wracking up college debt. The attention will come from all the men, not just the limited selection whose attention she’d like to ensnare. While you’re bending over in your yoga pants to mess with your backpack, eyes that were on phones might move even if heads don’t. This is a tactical maneuver, duh.

Like I said, I’m not a pervert but my problem is that I notice things. Whether it’s on a plane or a train I sit next to the window so I can look out at stuff. How can you understand what you don’t actively try to notice? What introspection is to be achieved if you fail to observe what’s going on around you and thus place yourself in context? Rather than these intellectual imperatives, somebody can sit through a drug commercial and think things are fine? This offers some real explanatory value.

I’m not sure where I’m going with this, but it’s a dark place that’s for sure. I’ll cut it off here.