I'm not sure whether I should be annoyed or not about how dismissively he treated written fiction.
I think your reaction is misplaced.
US customs agents make a life-and-death decision with every person they let pass. One of the primary methods they use is questioning people and gauging their reactions. Remember that 93% of communication is non-verbal, and it is not the verbal component that they are evaluating. It's like a game; if they get you off-balance, they win (which could mean opening luggage or other indignities), and if you get them off-balance, you win (and you get waved through). If they ask a stupid question or make a sarcastic remark, they lose. Anytime the conversation gets to whatever convention I'm going to, I know I'm in the clear; there is an average of one more question at that point.
I never get flustered by Customs because in my head, I'm a citizen, i.e. one of the people they are working to protect, and I'm also empathetic about the impossible negative-lottery task they face. I'd hate to have a job where there was a one-in-a-million chance several times an hour in which many people would be killed by my mistake. When I project this as an empathetic vibe, it gets me waved through just about all the time.
Every time they ask me a question, I see the image of the burning World Trade Center, and I know they do too, and that puts the interaction into its proper context for both myself and the customs agent.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2005-11-22 02:24 am (UTC)I think your reaction is misplaced.
US customs agents make a life-and-death decision with every person they let pass. One of the primary methods they use is questioning people and gauging their reactions. Remember that 93% of communication is non-verbal, and it is not the verbal component that they are evaluating. It's like a game; if they get you off-balance, they win (which could mean opening luggage or other indignities), and if you get them off-balance, you win (and you get waved through). If they ask a stupid question or make a sarcastic remark, they lose. Anytime the conversation gets to whatever convention I'm going to, I know I'm in the clear; there is an average of one more question at that point.
I never get flustered by Customs because in my head, I'm a citizen, i.e. one of the people they are working to protect, and I'm also empathetic about the impossible negative-lottery task they face. I'd hate to have a job where there was a one-in-a-million chance several times an hour in which many people would be killed by my mistake. When I project this as an empathetic vibe, it gets me waved through just about all the time.
Every time they ask me a question, I see the image of the burning World Trade Center, and I know they do too, and that puts the interaction into its proper context for both myself and the customs agent.