In my hometown there lived a fella by the name of Hieronymus Throckmorten Rucksucker III. We called him Hermie, Throckie, old Ruckster, or HTR3, among other things. It was a terrible moniker for a kid, or an adult for that matter. He also had very large ears, bad eyesight with thick glasses, his folk made him wear dress clothes to school and carry a briefcase. The Rucksuckers thought they were pretty hot stuff in town, but it was not a shared point of view. Folk tended to say if they walked in the rain without their umbrellas they likely drown because the noses were held so high. Hermie’s voice was also one of the last one to change and it didn't sound very mature when it did. Folk, being naturally unkind to those who are different gave Hieronymus Throckmorten Rucksucter III an unnecessarily hard time. What can be said in the HTR III was a very obedient child who did whatever his parents, teachers, and ministers said to the best of his ability.
When HTR III went to college he went as far away from home as he could to a Ivy League School out east somewhere. He took elocution lessons and developed a very sound speaking voice. He had plastic surgery on his ears, his body filled out through gym work and he changed his name to Anomie* Smith. After college Anomie went to live in a large eastern town in a large business and became a mid level executive who stood out in no way whatsoever. He just fit in to the point of almost becoming invisible. He liked that.
With his new cloak of invisibility Anomie began doing things that he never would have done in my hometown. We went to strip bars. When not noticed he would trip little old ladies as they were trying cross the street. He would silently fart in an elevator with an innocent air. He would attend the theater sitting in the upper seats and boo performers. He would enter a bar he’d never been in and pick an argument and swear terribly at strangers but always escape before anyone would attack him. He would send anonymous emails belittling co-workers or bosses at his firm. He would attend political rallies and badger whoever the speaker was. Anomie felt he was free at last and could do practically anything he wanted with impunity. At night in bed he would think back about the members of my hometown and laugh at all their hang-ups and restricted behavior. There were also times when he felt like a first class shit. But even then he felt a silent comradeship with most of the other folk who lived in the city who didn’t know their neighbors, didn’t belong to much of anything, and felt very little responsibility for anyone and anything. He felt he was like almost everyone else he didn’t really know. He thought he was a part of the real silent majority, those that never claimed to be the silent majority for political purposes. He was no longer Throckmorten Rucksucker III but Anomie Smith along with a whole lot of other amoral A. Smiths.
[Anomie is a term meaning "personal feeling of a lack of social norms; normlessness". It describes the breakdown of social norms and values.[1] It was popularized by French sociologist Émile Durkheim in his influential book Suicide (1897). Durkheim borrowed the word from French philosopher Jean-Marie Guyau ~ Wikipedia]
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