Comments on: Our movie tickets buy more than 2 hours in front of a screen http://essays.dayah.com/movie-tickets-buy-harassment Michael Dayah via Knoxville, Tennessee Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:30:30 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: lucent http://essays.dayah.com/movie-tickets-buy-harassment/comment-page-1#comment-103 lucent Sun, 01 May 2005 03:50:40 +0000 http://www.dayah.com/wordpress/?p=13#comment-103 I'm not suggesting it comes naturally or is easy, simply that I make an effort. One hundred is a lot of people considering I only have half a dozen real friends. Even then, the limit is something to be worked around, not given into. One could use the same mechanisms as racism to lump all waiters or all bus drivers into one person. It's not optimal and doesn't offer them their full human dignity, but it's better than leaving them out completely as disembodied elements of the economy. I would actually suggest my abilities are below average, considering Internet people aren't real to me. If you want to give someone credit, how about those people who can invest their emotions into typed text, fully understanding there's a real person behind it? That always struck me as remarkable. I’m not suggesting it comes naturally or is easy, simply that I make an effort. One hundred is a lot of people considering I only have half a dozen real friends. Even then, the limit is something to be worked around, not given into. One could use the same mechanisms as racism to lump all waiters or all bus drivers into one person. It’s not optimal and doesn’t offer them their full human dignity, but it’s better than leaving them out completely as disembodied elements of the economy.

I would actually suggest my abilities are below average, considering Internet people aren’t real to me. If you want to give someone credit, how about those people who can invest their emotions into typed text, fully understanding there’s a real person behind it? That always struck me as remarkable.

]]> By: malabar http://essays.dayah.com/movie-tickets-buy-harassment/comment-page-1#comment-102 malabar Sat, 30 Apr 2005 20:31:31 +0000 http://www.dayah.com/wordpress/?p=13#comment-102 Interesting - I think I do manage to humanise people I meet in person, but not those who are only pictures on paper or on a screen. From sociobiology we learn that people's brains are pretty much wired to deal with maybe 100 people as individuals - the average size of a tribe. People outside that "monkeysphere" tend to be less real. I don't think we've evolved sufficiently as a species to cope with more than that as a general rule. It's certainly admirable that you can do that, but I suspect it's an unusual ability. Interesting – I think I do manage to humanise people I meet in person, but not those who are only pictures on paper or on a screen. From sociobiology we learn that people’s brains are pretty much wired to deal with maybe 100 people as individuals – the average size of a tribe. People outside that “monkeysphere” tend to be less real. I don’t think we’ve evolved sufficiently as a species to cope with more than that as a general rule. It’s certainly admirable that you can do that, but I suspect it’s an unusual ability.

]]> By: lucent http://essays.dayah.com/movie-tickets-buy-harassment/comment-page-1#comment-101 lucent Sat, 30 Apr 2005 04:36:16 +0000 http://www.dayah.com/wordpress/?p=13#comment-101 I tend to take the opposite view and try to integrate everyone into more imaginable roles. For example, a bus driver is a friend giving me a ride somewhere or a restaurant is someone serving me dinner at their home. So celebrities are some people I pay to entertain me. It really brings the world together and takes away the commodity fetishism to think like this. My life is almost entirely normal social interaction with normal people. Both Marx and the Unabomer would argue that the abstraction from social relationships you describe is responsible for our feelings of powerlessness and discontentment. I tend to take the opposite view and try to integrate everyone into more imaginable roles. For example, a bus driver is a friend giving me a ride somewhere or a restaurant is someone serving me dinner at their home. So celebrities are some people I pay to entertain me. It really brings the world together and takes away the commodity fetishism to think like this. My life is almost entirely normal social interaction with normal people. Both Marx and the Unabomer would argue that the abstraction from social relationships you describe is responsible for our feelings of powerlessness and discontentment.

]]> By: malabar http://essays.dayah.com/movie-tickets-buy-harassment/comment-page-1#comment-100 malabar Fri, 29 Apr 2005 00:24:57 +0000 http://www.dayah.com/wordpress/?p=13#comment-100 I think of celebrity types as "show people", like show dogs or cats - purpose-bred, existing in their own little hermetically-sealed bubbles, needing extraordinary measures to maintain their nonsustainable and artificial lifestyles, admired by certain sections of the populace, but ultimately having little or nothing to do with everyday life beyond image. I think of celebrity types as “show people”, like show dogs or cats – purpose-bred, existing in their own little hermetically-sealed bubbles, needing extraordinary measures to maintain their nonsustainable and artificial lifestyles, admired by certain sections of the populace, but ultimately having little or nothing to do with everyday life beyond image.

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