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Just commenting to the effect that it is very easy to make an off-hand or ill thought out remark that someone else takes offense to, even if none was particularly intended. (To Whit some BP exec talking about “the small people”). </p>
<p>As an example, I was adjuncting at a small college and volunteered to accompany a group of students on their Spring Break service trip to Kentucky one year. At the introductory meeting, students from previous trips talked about their experiences. One of the things they all mentioned was how amazed they were at how “happy” the people they helped were, even though they were dirt poor and, in some cases, barely had indoor plumbing. There seemed to be a sense that the happiness was somehow a product of the poverty, rather than a manifestation of the human capacity to go on with life and find happiness in various aspects of it, despite the circumstances. Having grown up in a similar state of poverty to the people we were helping, I found the attitude of the students rather an affront, even though they didn’t mean to be offensive.</p>