Chris Walsh (chris_walsh) wrote,
Chris Walsh
chris_walsh

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Sense-making

rollick, after running into a concertgoer who wanted to keep talking throughout that concert, wonders if there's more to public rudeness than just people being rude:
The one thing I took away from reading Lynne Truss’ Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door was the notion that the boundaries between public and private spaces are breaking down: Once, you could only watch movies in public, and it was a special occasion. Now, you can watch them at home, and it’s hard for some people to grasp the distinction between seeing a movie from their couch—where they can heckle and give running commentaries to their hearts’ content without disturbing anyone—and seeing one in the theater...

Truss’ theory is that people who are engaging in private behavior in public spaces haven’t really grasped the difference—if they’re doing things they normally do in private, they’re socially keyed to expect privacy. So when we confront these people, they aren’t just affronted—they’re frightened. Because they’ve been INTRUDED ON. Someone saying “Will you please keep it down?” in the movie theater has just broken into their living room uninvited and given them a lecture. And the instinctive response is aggressive alarm.
I can see that. Heck, I have seen that. The post: worth reading. (Thanks for the link, yendi.)
Tags: books
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