I found myself in a party full of strangers once. I generally dislike this kind of parties (I like small intimate parties) but there I was in a middle of conversation among strangers. I was disinterested. I did not show it but tiring facade that is social etiquette demands participation and I had really nowhere to go without being rude. The settings was not a one-time encounter where I could risk being labeled as an impolite stranger. They know me personally, even if superficially, and I know them personally, even if superficially. One lesson arising from “repeated game” is that reputation matters. I did not want to be known that rude person. And I have been labeled as anti-social, sometimes even arrogant by some, but I guess, not without basis. Some stereotypes like being an alum of certain schools also work against me.
So, I try to be friendlier sometimes, but I distrust strangers, and that is a huge barrier for me.
But I listened to the conversation at hand even as I wished I was somewhere else, even as the topic of the conversation switched from one that bores to one that dulls.
Many have short attention span, forgetting what was said five sentences ago. I marked every single point of switch of topic, trying to entertain myself amid banality of mass opinions regurgitated to me, as if these opinions were the product of individual creative endeavor that worth the seconds and minutes and heavens, the hour it consumed. In truth, those opinions were first maybe written or said very well and good, but later repackaged for popular consumption, for the masses.
The mass opinions focus on the punch line, because it is easy. The logic, the rationale, the origin, the context, all pushed to the backroom, hidden, doors locked. Slowly, voila! The development of clichés. Gradually and suddenly, an argument designed for specific issue became the general punch line for all issues, losing its context.
There I was, listening to clichéd arguments on 1,001 issues by the conversationists, being polite.
