The word, bumptious, has found recent currency, mostly in political discourse, but the Trumpian allusion is not what I’ve in mind.
Nor will this be a plea for others, always others, to be kinder and more considerate.
Rather, I’ll explore the seeming lack of courtesy (rudeness) which is central to being bumptious. What promotes rudeness? Is it Nature or Nurture?
At an open-air musical performance I found myself being pushed out of the way by a tiny (5ft tall) Chinese lady. I – 6 feet tall and weighing 200 pounds – was standing behind a rope in the front row, but she persisted – unrelentingly – in nudging/pushing me aside to claim my space.
Mildly amused by this gross invasion of privacy, I said nothing and moved out of her way.
Not long after, I saw that the Chinese government was offering “how to behave as a tourist” protocol classes to try to repair the damaged reputation of their tourists with their egregious anti-social ways.
Of course, China is a communist nation and its history – like all socialist countries – has eras of great scarcity and want.
That pushing aside, elbowing, behavior is one I’ve experienced in groceries in Latvia – even with full shelves and crammed refrigerators prominently on display.
Of course, Latvia was occupied for fifty years until 1991 by Russian communists as part of the Soviet union.
Don’t let me get too smug and imply that bumptiousness is somehow geographically or politically limited.
We Americans can get pushy, even confrontational, especially when a flat screen TV is on the line on Black Friday.
And, I will always remember the back-in-the-day skirmishes among shoppers in Filene’s department store basement in Boston!
Very likely the little Chinese lady and my Latvian (and Bean-town) shoppers were acting on an ingrained competitive, survivalist impulse – to “get it” before someone else does.
Back in Latvia’s “Soviet times” – a euphemism since it implies none of the actual horrors – it was not unusual for a queue to form outside a shop.
The rule, back then, was, if you see a line, join it – there might be something at the end of it. Maybe a loaf of bread, an orange, or a pork chop.
My Riga cousin’s mother-in-law – now in her 70s – recently joined a queue at the grand opening of an Aldi market. She was delighted to be in that line. Why?
Nostalgia.
Back in those Soviet times a queue was an opportunity to share the “misery” and to exchange gossip. Of course anything overtly political was severely taboo and would be reported to the secret police – just like in today’s Russia – but you could talk about everything else.
We tend to make the best of circumstances, however awful.
The mother-in-law enjoyed that line so much, she came back the next day and joined another queue at the same store!
One of my major peeves when in Riga is the unwillingness of many Latvians, old and young, to hold a door for anyone behind them.
I vividly recall as a visiting professor entering the faculty building and a student – fully aware I was behind him – opening the door only enough to slip through. Not a slammed door, but equally rude. I felt like collaring the miscreant and asking him if he was raised in a barn – in Latvian, “Vai tu esi audzis šķūnī?” I like the low-life sound of the last word.
Another door example, my wife observed a grown man slamming a door on a group of small children entering a Riga nature museum.
What do you think those kids took away from that? Nature or nurture?
When I hold the door open in Riga the reaction can be a bit confused. The same happens when I give up my seat to someone on the Riga bus. They do not know whether to say the obvious “Paldies!” (thank you) or say nothing and ignore me for my odd behavior.
I get much more of the latter than the former, but it does not stop me from exercising simple courtesy.
A young Latvian friend – a self-professed introvert – with 2 small children tells me that Latvians keep to themselves when in public and they are suspicious about interactions with strangers, “When you hold the door, you have a small interaction with a stranger, and I don’t like it.”
However, she does hold the door for fellow passengers arriving at the Riga train station and, she observes, that she is not the only one to do so.
Perhaps because these are co-travelers this slight social interaction is less stressful, and most are in a hurry to get to a destination, so unlikely to linger and chat.
Alas, every day I walk about Riga – and it is a delightfully walkable city, as good as any, bumptiousness is evident. Indeed, I could find a behavior to resent every time I step out on the sidewalk. And, so I make a concentrated effort to keep a glad and joyful heart, but it does get trying.
The AI robot, DeepSeek offered me some clues as to why bumptiousness was very much a part of Soviet culture.
As you read this, keep in mind that this is not a list exclusive to the days of communist/totalitarian rule in the Baltic nations.
Socialism always results in these behaviors; it’s in its DNA. But, raw capitalism also can make people unkind and uncaring.
Paraphrasing the AI response, I can make the following observations.
Socialism – in spite of all claimed good intentions – always leads to a scarcity mindset and to a resulting competition for resources. Survival.
We find ourselves distrusting others – even family – and to survive we adopt an “Every Man for Himself” attitude.
Socialism is all about big government and for big government to rule over the proletariat requires a bureaucratic indifference (we treat everyone the same) and dehumanization in being “fair” but that fairness is also a weapon against those you choose not to help.
Enter the “white envelope” slid across the counter and all is sunshine and roses (gained through corruption).
While socialism claims it offers a better life, it requires one to suppress his or her individuality for the collective good. “Collectivism” trumps (pun intended) individualism. Our neighborhood weed shop in Salem, calls itself a “collective”, harking back to those toking undergraduate days with the professoriate boosting socialism.
Still, bumptiousness is not exclusive to totalitarian states, but those of us in capitalist societies at least work at how we treat others. There’s a payoff for polite behavior vs. riding roughshod over others.
We are reminded of the biblical Golden Rule. Straight out of Luke: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”
So, while capitalists have social manners and mores to ease how we interact in society, the socialist way is probably going to dismiss those guidelines as bourgeois and a means for white supremacy to keep others under its thumb, etc.
Then there’s the notion of free will – “the ability of individuals to make choices and take actions voluntarily.” Socialism, as far as I know, rejects unqualified free will. What, you may be wondering, does free will have to do with rudeness? Well, the few who like telling others what to do eventually resort to physical force upon the unwilling.
The result is a climate of fear and suspicion which leads to unkindness and uncaring.
I believe kindness and a cooperative spirit are inherent in most people and it is exercised through free will. It is why humankind has lasted as long as it has.
So, hold that door!
N.B. For other essays on numerous topics and fables go to my Nucleus archive from 2010-early 2025.
© Copyright John Lubans 2026