To Recline or Not to Recline?

Sometimes I’ll see online or TV debates over whether or not one should recline one’s seat on an airplane. Does your right to recline override the right of the passenger behind you to have a little more space? Since I’ve been known to have opinions I thought I’d offer my opinion on this raging issue:

Conduct yourself like an adult.

This goes for both the recliner and the person behind: Work it out amongst yourselves like adults. There’s no need for binding arbitration or a Bill of Rights on this. Ask before reclining your seat and if the person behind says no, handle that inconvenience like an adult. On the other hand, if you object to a person reclining and the person does it anyway, handle that inconvenience like an adult. It’s the same with who has the right to the armrest. Maybe rather than fighting over armrest access like a World War I soldier fighting over a scrap of territory in France, you should try to cope?

I mean, did you see the video of that guy on the plane who kept tapping on the seat in front of him after the woman reclined? My God—what are you, 8 years old? You really can’t deal with a little less space for a few hours? And if you’re a recliner and the person behind you asks you not to recline, you really can’t deal with having to stay upright? Is it a hill worth dying on? Yesterday at the gym, I saw a panel on CNN debating this issue with an intensity similar to a debate over the Israeli–Palestinian peace process.

“I shouldn’t have to!” you huff indignantly over a few degrees of seat movement. While this is a pretty ironclad counter-argument for an adult to give, let me attempt a response:

Sometimes being a grownup means having to do something you shouldn’t have to do. Someday you might actually have to face having slightly less personal space on an airplane. But you can do it. You can get by and make it through. After all, the Lord never gives us more than we can handle.