On being arch

The man is frequently arch and flippant, thereby presumably camouflaging his own discomfort with himself.

The effect is not what he actually hopes to produce: others find the archness and flippancy hurtful and turn away. (Americans, who confuse nicety for politeness, see this as rude).

He is uncertain why I do not and credits this to my warrior descent. He thinks this means that I do not care and assumes this not caring to be somehow be military. He's possibly wrong; the military class tend to be big on socialization and interconnectedness, which are alliance builders, and the military needs allies more than anyone else. See section 3 of last entry for what I think is a better explanation of the not caring.

I tell him that he'd have much greater success with the ladies if he'd just hang the flippancy and simply said how it was; but of course this is like telling a mouse to roar: he can't help being arch and flippant.