<Would they have needed to be in tribal dress in order to impress you with the sincerity of their cultural awareness?>
I can't remember if some of them did actually have some costumes on. Maybe they did. I tend to not notice that so much as language, demeanour and behaviour. They were not immigrants. They were "Made in USA" [as I recall] which is why they had the same cultural norms although they tried to make out they had different ones. Sure, there were trivial differences. But homogeneity was the image I got. I'm sure they were sincere. I don't recall any fakery [this was a few years ago now].
The point was, there was no diversity that I saw. No significant diversity anyway. They were cultural clones.
On smiles: if we are our behaviour, then actors are their behaviour. We know that's not true. Some people are insincere and conduct their relationships in manipulative, deceptive ways. To the viewer, the conman appears credible. "Such a nice man he was too!!"
I am well aware that we can choose to change our state of mind by our behaviour and I am going NOW to do that! By leaving this keyboard. I need to get a dose of 3D, air and movement for an altered state of mind which I know will make me feel better - having been sitting around inside too long today. Yes, we can choose to be friendly and that will change our state of mind because it will bring new 3D experiences and social contact into action and into our minds. You are quite right. But that's more than a fake smile.
I don't believe the insincere or "I must make myself" smile gives the good chemicals. In my younger days, I worked at Auckland Sheltered Workshops for mentally and physically handicapped people. They weren't "otherwise advantaged", they were crippled in both mental and physical ways. Visitors often didn't know how to interact with the trainees and adopted patronizing tones rather than just deal with each person as they found them.
Once I was filing some metal and a lady asked me what I was doing in a way that made me realize she thought I was a trainee. So, I explained [I didn't want to say "Oh, I'm not one of them" which would have been separating them from me which, since it was an open day to see how the place functioned rather than a human-zoo trip, would have been the wrong answer. It seemed more polite to just ignore the fact that she though I was one of them]. She of course soon realized I wasn't a trainee and she was embarrassed, which to me, she needn't have been. She was embarrassed because she was treating me in a different way to how she would have treated me if she thought I was normal.
We used to have a lot of fun and I didn't teach them to smile. Though it was NOT fun when Murie ran away in Newmarket after getting angry with somebody in the back and started throwing some bits of wood and I stopped to sort things out. I was terrified that she would get frightened and run into the road. Barry and a couple of other trainees jumped out of the van when I stopped at some traffic lights [to go and get Murie]. It was turning into a circus. A frightening one for me and of course for Murie who didn't really have much idea of what she was doing.
Many of them were ugly, fat, crippled and their brains didn't do much either. But they were happy. They were happy because they had useful things to do, or try to do, with people who liked them, they weren't hungry, cold etc. We had fun driving to and from the place. We didn't bother much with deliberate smiles. We just laughed as we felt like it or the need arose [which I liked to make happen, which I suppose you could say is deliberate fun-making, which is false, but I agree that we can change how we feel by selecting things to do].
If people are smiling back at you, then it's probably for real!
Mqurice |
