barbershop

The Barbershop is the last bastion of free speech in this country. When a man enters a barbershop he feels comfortable at peace. He knows he can air his opinions and they will be weighed with the gravity they should in everyday life. There are no winners and losers in a barbershop, just an old guard of free men, who like short hair. The position of barber goes as far back as ancient egyptian times and came of age in Rome where all free man had to be clean shave and all slaves wore beards. This served as a signifier of class and rank amongst the Romans, it's also how the term barbarian ("the unbarbered") came about. A similar feeling is expressed in the modern day barbershop, it is a place of civility and courtesy's, an open forum for the discussion of the mundane and magnificent, spurious and true. The issues of are time are addressed in simple language with no fear of recrimination. Unlike the freemen are bones no special skill is required for admission to this fraternity it is a true democracy. Perhaps the shops origins in greece and rome explain the open nature of barbershop. I think it comes from the shop itself.

The conversation in barbershops focuses on what we all have in common. For a few minutes every few months we are just citizens, not bankers, lawyers, students; just citizens. We discuss the issues of the day, talk to the same people we despise so much on the freeways, at the grocery store, in the DMV. We take the time to step outside ourselves and see things from another's perspective, and now matter how harsh the criticism, how racist the rebukes, how sexist the jokes all is heard.