Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Sheep, Sheep, Everywhere
Why do people do it?
They generally think the same as their social programming makes them. Watch the tv programmes they are supposed to (and don't think that those things aren't marketed exactly to their audiences), buy the goods they are supposed to and go to the job that they hate to get money to do exactly what they are programmed to like those two weeks in the sun and the conservatory they'll rarely use.
Sure, there are exceptions: rouge genes abounding and square pegs in those round holes. But mostly, we aspire to the banal, the effortlessly trivial, the dull and commonplace. We're humans: it's what we do.
Take bank holidays. Still, millions will pile into cars to sit in traffic jams en route to a seaside they know they'll barely reach in time and which will probably be thronged with like minds making it unpleasantly crowded. (Not that last Monday though - too wet by far - but any clement ones.)
I do it too, lest you think I'm somehow placing myself on a pedestal. Not necessarily the very same things as listed, but more or less the same, and other stuff besides that is just as dull and commonplace. I but the Sunday papers, whether I need to or not.
Guess that's how this world works. It's ridiculously obvious if you take a step back. It's not even a bad thing either, in many ways. Those who do step back and spot what they are doing can at least be aware enough to avoid the worst of it - hence, I'll never roast in a summer car travelling all day for ten minutes at a beach, I'll never buy that house just on the edge of my wage reach, I'll never (again!) buy those items on discount just because they are on discount, no thought for whether they'll be used or not. Hopefully never, at least. That programming can be devlishly hard to break.
Most people just don't make any conscious decisions at all most of the time though, do they? Maybe that's for the best too?
They generally think the same as their social programming makes them. Watch the tv programmes they are supposed to (and don't think that those things aren't marketed exactly to their audiences), buy the goods they are supposed to and go to the job that they hate to get money to do exactly what they are programmed to like those two weeks in the sun and the conservatory they'll rarely use.
Sure, there are exceptions: rouge genes abounding and square pegs in those round holes. But mostly, we aspire to the banal, the effortlessly trivial, the dull and commonplace. We're humans: it's what we do.
Take bank holidays. Still, millions will pile into cars to sit in traffic jams en route to a seaside they know they'll barely reach in time and which will probably be thronged with like minds making it unpleasantly crowded. (Not that last Monday though - too wet by far - but any clement ones.)
I do it too, lest you think I'm somehow placing myself on a pedestal. Not necessarily the very same things as listed, but more or less the same, and other stuff besides that is just as dull and commonplace. I but the Sunday papers, whether I need to or not.
Guess that's how this world works. It's ridiculously obvious if you take a step back. It's not even a bad thing either, in many ways. Those who do step back and spot what they are doing can at least be aware enough to avoid the worst of it - hence, I'll never roast in a summer car travelling all day for ten minutes at a beach, I'll never buy that house just on the edge of my wage reach, I'll never (again!) buy those items on discount just because they are on discount, no thought for whether they'll be used or not. Hopefully never, at least. That programming can be devlishly hard to break.
Most people just don't make any conscious decisions at all most of the time though, do they? Maybe that's for the best too?
# posted by Cobardon @ 5:18 AM 
