Middle Initials
There is something so needlessly and incredibly pompous about middle initials. I have no real explanation for it, but the use of a middle initial seems to be some kind of weird cultural thing that has aristocratic roots. One could argue, with considerable merit, that if you are famous or are trying to distinguish yourself from someone who is famous and shares the same name, that the use of a middle initial is appropriate. A worthy example of this are the film directors Paul Thomas Anderson (who usually goes by P. T. Anderson), and Paul W. S. Anderson, have great reason to distinguish themselves from each other. Both are prolific in their fields, and yet one is a great director, and the latter is a worthless hack who should be shot.
In most cases, however, the use of a middle initial seems to be little more than a completely arrogant act. I compare this to professors who I have had or heard of who insist on being called "doctor", or referred to as Dr. Dipshit (replace here with random name). Much as how these are artificial status symbols, I think that middle initials are self-awarded status symbols of douchebaggery (thanks to Jon Stewart for that one). Using your middle initial is little more than an applied status symbol in order to so pompously distinguish yourself from the masses. I can't figure out any logical reason for it.
Even more repulsive are people who decide one day that they want to use their middle initial. It raises the question of what kind of a person wakes up one morning and randomly decides that they no longer want to simply be called Chad Roberts, but rather Chad T. Roberts. What type of arrogant prick has nothing better to do than to think of such trivial things like how an extra letter might increase ones societal prestige?
Warm regards,
Eric Y. Portelance
3 Comments:
Thank you for the comment on Paul W.S. Anderson! Dear lord I wish the bastard would choke on his cornflakes.
This reminds me of an anecdote. A friend of my family makes orthoprostetics and had a client walk in one day asking how much his prostetic would cost. Unfortunetly, she couldn't give an assessment since she didn't have the doctor's exam back. Depending on the damage the client has sustained a prostetic could be very expensive, like it can be very affortable. She explained in as many ways as she could why she couldn't give an approximation but the man wouldn't take it. He finally answered "I don't have to put up with this shit, I've got a Doctorate!" and stormed out.
Another, shorter anecdote comes from a really dumb person. This girl actually thought that people were no longer aloud to name their sons 'insert-name' Junior because there are too many juniors nowadays.
Really good post!
Eric K.M.A. Chartier
Actually, this reminds me of something else:
My sister decided that she wants to have my mother's madden name added onto her own name.
She already has a composed name (for strickly English people, composed names is something French people love to do to complicate names by adding two names back-to-back with a hyphen in the middle. Like Marc-Andre, Marie-Eve, etc...) and now will have two family names.
good post. Its not just the pomposity of the middle initial, I find the middle name itself a waste of time as well. But best of all are the winners that use the initial prior to the name they go by, for example C. Michael Fucktard, as though the C somehow heightens the importance of the Michael. In fact, lets fucking get rid of names all together, we should all just have a number and have to use it - would level out the playing field a bit - especially for the miscreants from the low brow underclass whose parents have given them "original" names like Zaker, or Elvis.
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