“You’re the guy fro UP who went here last year, right?” she said after several lines of conversation.
“Yes,” I answered.
“I’m sorry. I have a bad memory.”
“Oh that’s alright,” I said with a deprecating smile. It’s one of the strategies I use so that I won’t be stereotyped under the arrogant UP image.
Then as I made my leave, I couldn’t help but conclude that she was getting too hard on herself. For her to remember me, one of perhaps dozens of inquirers, is no mean feat. Perhaps the word UP joggled her memory, or perhaps she does remember everything but she just pretends that she doesn’t.
I don’t know if there really exists a person who pretends to forget people for the sense of importance that they get in forgetting someone. I know some people do it for a real or a perceived slight, but to do that for other reasons is a warrant for a case study.
I don’t have a background on psychiatry yet so I do not know if this condition, or syndrome, already has a name. I would also include in this category every attitude and character trait of low level upstarts, and not so upstarts, who make a hard time on honest people just because they currently have the power to do so. And for nomenclature’s sake I’ll call it the “Feeler” Syndrome.*
Now aren’t you thankful you can now describe power tripping clerks, salesladies, guards, and 3rd level bureaucrats?
*A Feeler is someone who is “feeling”. “Feeling”, by the way, is a uniquely Filipino construct to describe people who inappropriately think so highly of themselves. In another uniquely Filipino construct, someone who is “feeling” is therefore a feeler.
