Charles Craig of Arlington, who says he is frequent flyer, wrote the following letter to the editor. The Boston Globe published a version of it on Thursday, Jan. 2, 2014. This is Craig’s original copy. His first sentence refers to a Dec. 30 Globe editorial, “Airlines: Buy peace in the legroom wars.”
What an inane waste of ink, even as an opinion piece! One would think the power of the press could be used to improve conditions for the general society.
Urging airline passengers to buy drinks for each other to set a better social tone under inhumane conditions is a questionable proposal on many levels. Chiefly, it does not address the problem, which appears to be corporate ineptness and/or greed in creating bad environments for air passengers.
Anyone who has cleared the first year of college or Psychology 101 (or read any of numerous historical accounts and social anthropological studies) should be familiar with the concept of social anomie or the breakdown of behavior rooted in overcrowded conditions. What some (but not all) airlines are doing by cramping seats together is fundamentally demeaning and dehumanizing. Moreover, such crowding is unsafe beyond the risk of a bruised or fractured kneecap.
Passengers should not be urged to liquor-up, but to boycott the airlines with less inspired managers for those airlines that still turn profits without dissing their patrons in three dimensions.
