The failure mode of righteous is petty

November 1, 2018 8:19 PM

World history is peppered with petty—the small-minded revenge seekers and the even smaller-minded ones, too. A building constructed just to block a neighbor’s light; a lawsuit over a too-short Subway sandwich; a 300-year war started over a stolen wooden bucket. To honor this ignoble part of human nature, we have made the Petty Hall of Fame. It is a massive 60-item mountain of petty, created from humans’ entire history of molehills.
posted by Johnny Wallflower (7 comments total)

What, no immovable ladder?
posted by pompomtom at 8:36 PM on November 1, 2018 [8 favorites]

Maybe it reflects me more than the article, but some of these seem not at all petty and appear to me to be calmer responses than I would have.
posted by Literaryhero at 9:03 PM on November 1, 2018 [1 favorite]

You know, I would read Johnny's posts, but...
posted by Samizdata at 1:03 AM on November 2, 2018 [4 favorites]

“Never be petty.” — Dick Nixon
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:17 AM on November 2, 2018

Thank you for this, this was delightful.
posted by coffeeand at 9:48 AM on November 2, 2018

Sending this to my sisters RIGHT FUCKING NOW. For reasons.
posted by vers at 3:25 PM on November 2, 2018 [2 favorites]

My fave petty anecdote was the two rich businessmen who disagreed about booking time with a tennis instructor at their country club. It escalated into an insane feud with weird threats, harassments, & lawsuits.
posted by ovvl at 3:39 PM on November 2, 2018