In an online survey by Travel + Leisure Magazine, New York City was ranked as the least friendly city in the U.S. by non-residents. These people are right in their assessment, and to them, we New Yorkers would like to say, "We don't like you either." What we lack in manners, we make up for in honesty and accomplishment.
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We'd rather speak the truth than be nice all the time. There's value to truth, however appalling it may be to the sensibilities of the delicate, wilting flowers among us. That value far surpasses a fake smile at a church barbecue or an empty compliment followed by gossip.
New York City is where we talk to your face. For us, judgment based on merit is not considered morally inferior to vacuous platitudes, and we like it that way. It means little when someone you've just met compliments your appearance out of social obligation. Because Americans expect these choreographed graces, New Yorkers are deemed rude when we simply don't have the time to comply.
We don't live in a city where there is extra time for us to act out unnecessary clauses of an outdated social contract. Instead, we do big things — things that are ultimately more important than niceties. It's not personal, and it's not the end of the world.
Americans love to quote the Dalai Lama in his call for more "random acts of kindness." But pro forma compliments are not gestures of kindness at all. Such fake endearments are the sugar substitute of American society. They contribute only non-substantive sweetness and cause cultural cancer when consumed in excessive quantity.
It's not a problem that New Yorkers are often rude. Human kindness loses its meaning, loses its life, loses its humanity; when it is applied in every instance to every person without any soul or feeling. Thank those who deserve your thanks, say hello to the people you want to see, be nice to the people who deserve it. Let the soul-destroying banality of the fluorescent-filtered "thank you" wither in Idaho, where it belongs.
