Cartoon Copyright 2008 Jean Burman
It’s a funny old world we live in. And the people in it are even funnier. Take a look at this clip produced by Improv Everywhere. I love the experiments in human behaviour that these guys come up with… but this one was especially entertaining.
A week away in the big smoke has served as an amusing reminder that people are the same wherever you go!
Human behaviour is still human behaviour… in pretty much everyone’s language.
It’s been a wonderful (if exhausting) week of sitting in cafes… cruising the shops… waiting in queues… and sitting patiently in traffic gridlock… providing a great opportunity to take time out to simply observe the passing parade!
All this time out for observation however… (along with time at last to read Dan Ariely’s terrific book “Predictably Irrational – the hidden forces that shape our decisions”) … has left me once again with more questions than answers… and if anyone can help me out with any of these you are more than welcome to it! ((chuckles))
Random questions to ponder:
Why is it that complete strangers can become firm friends in a matter of minutes when thrown together into some unexpected or unusual circumstance?
Why is it that none of us wants to be the first table seated in an otherwise empty restaurant… preferring instead to fall into line like sheep and queue for an hour outside the one next door… just in case (safety in numbers and all that!)
Why is it that we can’t make up our mind which one we want… until someone else wants it. Then we know exactly what we want… and that’s the one they want – of course! ~grin~
Why is it that “free” is so appealing… even when it’s something we don’t want… don’t need… and more than likely can’t use?
Puzzling isn’t it?
Why even in politics the concept of “free” takes on dubious significance. Despite knowing that there is no such thing as a free lunch… why is it that so many voters almost invariably succumb to the promise of “freebies” in the lead up to an election? Whatever happened to “ask not what your country can do for you?” *wink*
Equally puzzling and no less astonishing… is the predictably irrational way in which voters decide on future leaders… allowing popular opinion and coercive persuasion by a manipulative press to shape their decisions and dictate the country’s entire future political direction! Why not simply cut to the chase and elect Rupert Murdoch? ~grin~
Back to things in general… come to think of it… I have always been interested in “why we do the things we do”.
It has always puzzled me why so many people don’t seem to know their own mind. And why those who do seem unwilling to share it. And why so many of us are so uncomfortable in our own skin… especially when it comes to making choices.
Why do we choose to simply “blend in” and “fall into line” rather than be seen to be different?
Only a very few are willing to stick their neck out and show the world what they are really made of.
(This is understandable of course… given the “resistance to difference” experienced within the bounds of what’s considered “normal” in human behaviour!)
But wouldn’t it be great?
Just for once?
If people dared to be different… or perhaps even… dared to be “themselves”.
What a wildly interesting… wide and diversified world it would then be!
I know… I know… it ain’t gonna happen…
not anytime soon anyway! 
Your comments are always welcome…
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