Where I live, it’s been cool and cloudy for the last six months, so I’ve been putting the time to use, by learning. In my case, this means consuming lots and lots of books, websites and documentary films. I’ve learned a lot about discoveries in science and medicine, about world history and faraway places. I feel like I’m up to date, and when the summer finally comes, I’ll be able to focus on other things.
What I’ve also realized is that despite all my learning and decades of life experience, there are questions to which I still don’t know the answers. For example:
• Why do I have to pay rent on the first day of the month, but I don’t get paid at my job until the end of the month?
• Why is renting an endless process? Shouldn’t my landlord give me my apartment after I’ve paid it off for him?
• Why are people at high levels rewarded for failure? Think about the bankers who’ve been getting bonuses as well as Paul Wolfowitz, Ron Sommer and Hartmut Mehdorn.
• Why has it become accepted practice to use harmless-sounding words like “smog” and “emissions” instead of the words we used to use — “smoke” and “pollution“?
• Why is it that in the 21st century, we can’t all agree which side of the road to drive on and which electrical plugs and voltages to use?
• Why does organic food cost more than “regular” food? The food for which there is a higher demand — because it looks better and is guaranteed to be free of pests — should really cost more.
• Why do people still use aristocratic titles in countries that no longer have an aristocracy? I’m descended from nobles, too. Can I call myself Count or Baron Pilewski?
• Why do we put walls around highways and railroads to abate the noise instead of making cars and trains less noisy?
• Why isn’t “hard” water filtered by the water company before it gets to us, instead of corroding our pipes and appliances?
• The biggest question of all, though, in my mind is: Why are men still expected to wear suits?
They’re unsuitable
Really. Think about it. The top part of a suit is a jacket or coat (it’s even called that). When else do we wear coats indoors? Never. Suits are a throwback to the 1600s, when the climate was a lot cooler and indoor heating was inefficient at best. Back then, men wore stockings, high heels and wigs, too, for crying out loud. We’ve moved beyond all that.
What I really can’t understand is men in the sweltering heat of Singapore or the crowded subways of Tokyo dressed in suits and ties — ties! — because we told them, in decades past, that they should follow our example. So what do they do? They turn up the air conditioning to create a frigid indoor environment in which wearing a coat is necessary.
Dress suits are just one kind of suit. There are also spacesuits, jumpsuits, tracksuits, sailor suits and hazmat suits. Function and appearance go together. A suit is a uniform. Once the uniform of the Western business world, it is now the uniform of the entire world. Even kings, such as those of the Netherlands and Jordan, now wear suits instead of robes.
The word “uniform”, as an adjective, means “identical”. Apparently there’s a desire for people to dress identically in order to be taken seriously in certain professions. I’m even wearing a suit on a rare occasion for the photo on this page. However, the dress code of 1950 has been eroding. First, the inner vest disappeared. Then people stopped wearing hats. Now it’s finally becoming acceptable not to wear a tie. What will come next?
Let’s forget the undershirt-with-a-suit-jacket-over-it look. Those guys look like they’ve just woken up and grabbed whatever they could put on. Steve Jobs looked slightly better in his T-shirt and jeans, but most people would not. What we really need are clothes that look good, that indicate respect, that are warm or cool in the right way, and that are comfortable. Fashion designers, get to work!
