servility, obsequiousness

Oscar’s use of the word slave to describe himself in the last chapter really bothered me. It seems unreal and impossible to me. This is the 21st century. I am wanting to believe that he was responding in kind to a teasing question, or that some language issue is at issue in his use of the word, although I well know that the words for slave and servant, in Spanish are esclavo and sirviente, respectively, and that it would be difficult to confuse them. Besides that, the workers in my union are neither slaves nor servants- they are building service professionals who make an excellent salary- close to 40,000 a year, and with our celebrated Christmas bonuses, we must take home close to what someone making 50,000 a year does, hardly slave wages, especially when you consider that the work we do is not physically taxing in the same way that, say, construction labor is. So why would he say that?

I’m as baffled as you are, although I suspect I have a clue.

There’s a sort of self-abasing false humility that we service people use sometimes that insults our own intelligence, and what’s more, insults the people we work for. Servility is not the reality, but our obsequiousness implies it.

I prefer deference, myself.