A Renaissance

They're passive and unperceptive, not jerkoffs. I did my Grade 12 Sociology exit project on this. We were trying breaching experiments, getting people to react to us breaking societal norms.

The problem was, that if anybody noticed we were doing anything, they didn't react to it. This was especially evident in the one portion we filmed wherein I stood in the middle of a crowded mall and stared at the ceiling (much like the joke about the New Yorker with the nosebleed looking at the sky). What we found was that hardly anybody noticed, but those that did simply looked at me, and failed to make the obvious connection and follow my gaze upwards, even when two of us did it together and loudly discussed what a disgrace it was that "that thing would be up there! It could hurt somebody". Those few who did look up were always under the age of 16.

We also found that the younger kids were more likely to help out a person in need. Certainly, it's always a kid between 7 and 12 years of age who actually stops at a door and holds it open for me, whereas anybody older only does it if I can get there fast enough. So much for the theory about kids being punk assholes who need to learn to respect their elders.

Even when we sent one of our men through the mall with a skirt and tight blouse, nobody paid attention, or even glanced his way. It ended with me going to a Chapters' Starbucks, sitting at some poor fellows' table, obnoxiously slurping my drink, laughing at my jokebook, and reading his newspaper. The guy still did not react (though when we watched the film later, he was disguising an annoyed look on his face, so he probably went home to his wife to complain). We never exchanged any words (though I should have tried that).

Times definitely have changed. People are more insular, more withdrawn, even in the relatively small area of Fredericton, where we filmed these experiments. People no longer want to have anything to do with what anybody else is doing. They no longer even care. Those people didn't ignore your woman with the stroller because they were jerkoffs, they ignored her because it didn't concern them in any way, and they wanted to keep it that way. Even the most charismatic of humanity has suddenly gotten extremely shy.

Or maybe it's just that when we were little they told us not to talk to strangers, and now we have issues with meeting new people.

 

See, that, by my definition, is rude. It's the "live and let live" mentality that needs to change. Sure, diversity is a wonderful, and everyone can be whoever the fuck they want to be, but there's nothing wrong with a little decency.

 

I agree with that. I'm the sort who'd go through days of mild guilt following a fleeting event that was essentially none of my business. Unless I help, of course. My preference is to act with decency when the choice presents itself, but not to search for the opportunities.

I'll just deal with things with some decency until I'm out of the way in my luxurious mansion, laughing to my self/selves with a joypad in one hand, rum in the other, and the room lit by the loading screen on an unnecessarily large TV. There may even be a wife somewhere nearby too. Only then will I be free to factor decency out, and indulge in my misanthropy.

 

My father told me this story.

He was struggling with some items at the checkout - lots of little things being arranged in the cardboard boxes he needed to take home - when a young girl behind him asked him if he needed any help.

My father said, "Didn't your mother tell you not to talk to strangers?"

Then proceeded to ignore her, even though she decided to help him take things out of the trolley and onto the register for him, chatting all the way.

I still have no idea what to make of it.

 

Something my father said.

He was old, very old at the time.
I went into his room, and he was sitting alone in the dark, crying.
So I asked him what was wrong, and he said, "My shoes are too tight, but it doesn't matter, because I have forgotten how to dance."

I never understood what that meant until now.
Now my shoes are too tight, and I have forgotten how to dance.

Okay it wasn't me and my father.
It was Londo and his father, but I figured that if were quoting things and telling stories...