It is very interesting to observe how humans behave in the wild. Not “in the wild” in the bush/nature setting, but out in the open, in public. As much as we all consider ourselves unique, we seem to be the only ones who can differentiate ourselves from the rest of the population. If indeed we were all individuals, then tell me, how faces, of the numerous strangers you passed today, do you remember? Surely your eyes must have passed over dozens, if not hundreds of unknown faces, yet you can remember hardly any of them. The ones that you do remember would be connected to some event, or perhaps they had something uncanny about their appearance. The fact of the matter, to you the individual (ironic, isn’t it), everyone may as well have been the same person (although that would be a cause for memory, seeing hundreds of the exact same face).
Back to behaving in the wild. Take the train for example. In Australia, train seats are manufactured so that they can be turned around. They can either face forwards or backwards. The rational advantages/disadvantages of forwards vs. backwards are fairly even but when humans enter the train carriage there seems to not be a second thought about their preference of orientation. One time, I was on my way to university, and I entered an empty carriage. Upon entering this carriage, I observed that all the seats were facing backwards. Personally preferring facing backwards due to it’s many advantages, I took a seat. I proceeded to notice as the train progressed through it’s stops and the carriage filled to the point that no seats were vacant, that all the seats in the carriage had been turned to face the front, except my own. I smiled knowingly and went back to my book. The point is, this wasn’t an isolated incident. This sort of thing happens all the time. What is it that predisposes people to sit facing the front? Some would claim they feel ill when traveling “in reverse”. Call me naive, but it seems highly unlikely that a whole carriage-full of people suffer from train-sickness. I believe that this train example is a more meaningful as a metaphor for the human condition. People sit facing the front because they believe it’s the “normal” thing to do. Once a few people do this, everyone feels obligated to follow suit. Such is the reason you don’t remember the majority of those faces on your walk down the street. An interesting example of this is the Asch Experiment:
Back to behaving in the wild. Take the train for example. In Australia, train seats are manufactured so that they can be turned around. They can either face forwards or backwards. The rational advantages/disadvantages of forwards vs. backwards are fairly even but when humans enter the train carriage there seems to not be a second thought about their preference of orientation. One time, I was on my way to university, and I entered an empty carriage. Upon entering this carriage, I observed that all the seats were facing backwards. Personally preferring facing backwards due to it’s many advantages, I took a seat. I proceeded to notice as the train progressed through it’s stops and the carriage filled to the point that no seats were vacant, that all the seats in the carriage had been turned to face the front, except my own. I smiled knowingly and went back to my book. The point is, this wasn’t an isolated incident. This sort of thing happens all the time. What is it that predisposes people to sit facing the front? Some would claim they feel ill when traveling “in reverse”. Call me naive, but it seems highly unlikely that a whole carriage-full of people suffer from train-sickness. I believe that this train example is a more meaningful as a metaphor for the human condition. People sit facing the front because they believe it’s the “normal” thing to do. Once a few people do this, everyone feels obligated to follow suit. Such is the reason you don’t remember the majority of those faces on your walk down the street. An interesting example of this is the Asch Experiment:
No one knows what they’re doing. No one knows why they’re doing it. Half the time they’re not even aware how they’re doing it. People just think it’s the “right” or “normal” thing to do and they keep walking. Blindly. Obediently. Ignorantly. Life is like a spotlight being shone upon you. You feel as if you’re the centre of the universe and spend your whole life only seeing what’s immediately around you, and what directly affects you. Someone should turn on the house lights.
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