I enjoy the overacting that human beings engage in in everyday life, especially when it is for the benefit of people who are very unlikely to care.
I was approaching Shepherd's Bush Grey this evening on my way to a gig when the man in front of me suddenly stopped in his tracks, made a pantomime-style "I am stupid and forgetful" face and moved his right arm downwards across his body in a gesture of further stupidity. He then turned around and went back the way he had come, having effectively communicated to the strangers around him that he had most probably forgotten to bring soemthing, or do something.
I just enjoy the fact that he (and the other human beings including myself) feel it necessary to behave in this way. I didn't really care about what was going on, as long as he didn't bump into me on his way back, but self-consciousness made him put on a little show for me so that his actions would be explained. None of us want to be thought of as the kind of person who will simply chance direction for no good reason. Better to be thought forgetful or slightly stupid than to be potentially mentally ill.
I certainly am guilty of this myself (
This is a fairly good recent example) and it seems to be human nature to try and unnecessarily explain ourselves in this way to people who we don't want to impress and who aren't actually interested in our lives. And what's more stupid is that whenever we are doing it we are really obviously acting, so if anyone was interested enough in us they would only actually pity us for our insecurity and poor thespianic skills.
Or is it arrogance? Are we actually just so sure that we are the most fascinating person in the world, that we have a duty to let the other lesser humans understand our every insignificant movement?
I don't know, but human beings (a group I include myself in, correctly I feel) are a strange and laughable breed.
