I don’t understand why it is that some people seem to take on the persona of Asshole as a first line of defense. (And we’re talking about the Jungian Architype here… the Platonic Form of the Asshole.)
The context: a bunch of folks were being loud in the hallway right outside my classroom. Since the class was writing a final exam at the time, I felt that this was to be discouraged, so I went out and asked them — quietly and politely — if they could possibly keep it down. Two of the three guys apologised and agreed; the third one — and these are older men, maybe in their 50s — started hectoring me about how it was a public hallway.
After the incident, of course, I came up with all sorts of properly florid ways of telling him to go to Hell. At the time, I think I rolled my eyes, went back into the (slightly overstuffed) classroom, and got people to fidget their desks in such a way as to make closing the door a possibility.
Jerk.