What's Up With... People Being All Up In Your Face?
On the street or in a store, do you feel that people are more in your face nowadays, than ever before? When you're trying to walk or drive somewhere, do you find yourself wanting all those folks to fucking just get out of the way? Of course you do. We all do-- for a number of reasons.
Start with a hypothetically well-adjusted, well-brought-up human being, living in a hypothetical community where people have a civilized amount of space to move around in-- whatever that means to you: no traffic jams, no mob at the open bar. Then consider all the factors that, in recent years, have diminished the navigability of public spaces, from a theoretical ideal of 100%:
- Overpopulation: There are many more of us now than when manners were invented. Nobody says "Excuse me," or even knows when to say it. Take off 5%, leaving navigability permanently diminished at 95%. Not great, but acceptable.
- Ungenerosity: Overpopulation means scarcity of resources, of which space is prime. Scarcity institutionalizes have-and have-not thinking-- which, in the case of space, has resulted in all kinds of stand-your-ground posturing. Sad, but it seems kinda normal now to ignore people standing right next to you at the door of a club. Subtract another 5%, leaving the human race at 90%.
- Narcissism: The increase here-- at least in people educated in the U.S. during the last thirty years-- is probably a result of excessive coddling by elementary and secondary school teachers, and college professors, which has allowed individuals to imagine that they are the sole standard by which proper behavior is measured. Like at the movies: "I'm sitting in this seat and I don't particularly care where you sit, as long it's not here, or in front of me, or anywhere else that might affect my enjoyment. And it's OK for me to be this way, because that's the way I am." Definitely minus 10%, for a remainder of 80%. Getting down there, but this factor is not a deal-breaker-- especially since, in a culture where human beings are so readily measured as units of consumption and production, narcissism can help put people back in touch with themselves as units of joy and pleasure.
- Motor Control Deficit: People's legs and arms and shoulders and hips and ankles no longer work with the athletic coordination to which our species was heir. You know that this is a result of hormones, plutonium, high-voltage electrical fields, fluoride, and other shit that big corporations have been pouring into the environment since WWII. Suck away 5%, to leave 75%.
- Personal Sound Systems: It's nice to hear music on headphones, but these devices have devastated peripheral awareness, making already narcissistic and ungenerous people dangerous projectiles or inertial roadblocks. Another 5% gone, leaving us with 70%.
- Cell Phones: See Personal Sound Systems, above. Cell phone users don't know what planet they're on. Lose another 5% like that. This is getting scary. 65%!
- Free-Floating Resentment Bordering on Rage: This is what happens when the world presents too many heinous political and social conditions for you to analyze and act against appropriately. Rational thought gets overtaken by a deep, primal fear of unseen or unknown forces. You get defensive, then aggressive-- at which point you not only don't wanna budge when a stranger says "Excuse me," you wanna kill him. Minus 10%. Which brings us down to 55%.
If there are other significant factors that have contributed to people's being all up in each other's faces, we can't think of them. Of course, there are factors that may be helping matters-- notably drugs, which keep many potentially inconvenient people at home, and the popularity of the words "peace" and "respect" in current usage. Add 1% for those.
56%. That's not much higher than the 50% mark-- which is where anthropologists and sociologists say all hell breaks loose...
Start with a hypothetically well-adjusted, well-brought-up human being, living in a hypothetical community where people have a civilized amount of space to move around in-- whatever that means to you: no traffic jams, no mob at the open bar. Then consider all the factors that, in recent years, have diminished the navigability of public spaces, from a theoretical ideal of 100%:
- Overpopulation: There are many more of us now than when manners were invented. Nobody says "Excuse me," or even knows when to say it. Take off 5%, leaving navigability permanently diminished at 95%. Not great, but acceptable.
- Ungenerosity: Overpopulation means scarcity of resources, of which space is prime. Scarcity institutionalizes have-and have-not thinking-- which, in the case of space, has resulted in all kinds of stand-your-ground posturing. Sad, but it seems kinda normal now to ignore people standing right next to you at the door of a club. Subtract another 5%, leaving the human race at 90%.
- Narcissism: The increase here-- at least in people educated in the U.S. during the last thirty years-- is probably a result of excessive coddling by elementary and secondary school teachers, and college professors, which has allowed individuals to imagine that they are the sole standard by which proper behavior is measured. Like at the movies: "I'm sitting in this seat and I don't particularly care where you sit, as long it's not here, or in front of me, or anywhere else that might affect my enjoyment. And it's OK for me to be this way, because that's the way I am." Definitely minus 10%, for a remainder of 80%. Getting down there, but this factor is not a deal-breaker-- especially since, in a culture where human beings are so readily measured as units of consumption and production, narcissism can help put people back in touch with themselves as units of joy and pleasure.
- Motor Control Deficit: People's legs and arms and shoulders and hips and ankles no longer work with the athletic coordination to which our species was heir. You know that this is a result of hormones, plutonium, high-voltage electrical fields, fluoride, and other shit that big corporations have been pouring into the environment since WWII. Suck away 5%, to leave 75%.
- Personal Sound Systems: It's nice to hear music on headphones, but these devices have devastated peripheral awareness, making already narcissistic and ungenerous people dangerous projectiles or inertial roadblocks. Another 5% gone, leaving us with 70%.
- Cell Phones: See Personal Sound Systems, above. Cell phone users don't know what planet they're on. Lose another 5% like that. This is getting scary. 65%!
- Free-Floating Resentment Bordering on Rage: This is what happens when the world presents too many heinous political and social conditions for you to analyze and act against appropriately. Rational thought gets overtaken by a deep, primal fear of unseen or unknown forces. You get defensive, then aggressive-- at which point you not only don't wanna budge when a stranger says "Excuse me," you wanna kill him. Minus 10%. Which brings us down to 55%.
If there are other significant factors that have contributed to people's being all up in each other's faces, we can't think of them. Of course, there are factors that may be helping matters-- notably drugs, which keep many potentially inconvenient people at home, and the popularity of the words "peace" and "respect" in current usage. Add 1% for those.
56%. That's not much higher than the 50% mark-- which is where anthropologists and sociologists say all hell breaks loose...
posted by Lucia Toledo at 8:33 AM
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