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Friday 29 January 2010

An agglutination of Agriculturists.


My intention was to finish up the enthralling tales of my holiday today but I have been in misery city this whole week. Ever since I have been back at work not a single thing I have done has worked. What a great start to the year. Blegh. All parents and future parents please write this down:

"dear small person from my loins, do not become a scientist. You will get paid very badly to fail constantly. Which kind of makes sense but is not much fun."

So I am holding back my holiday memoirs til next week when I feel perkier. I have also been getting home after 10.30pm, so I haven't even been able to read blogs properly. I have been a terrible blogger. Apologies!

I shall leave you with this instead:

How scary is the human herd mentality? I witnessed a good example of it last night. A huge herd of students were coming out of a lecture. A few started to cross the road when there was a gap, and of course the entire herd followed, even though there were cars right there having to stop and dodge them by the end.

It is quite a hilarious phenomenon. If you are alone, you look left and right, and if you see a car approaching slap bang where you need to cross you will not go. But if you are in a herd you don't look, you just go, because if they are doing it so can you... squeeesh. I guess so long as you stick to the middle of the herd you are allright, your friends can act as a buffer.

And the bigger the herd, the worse the effects. In a really large herd, all but the leader completely lose their minds and surrender to the hive mind, which just says "go".

It is not so hilarious when I happen to be the one to succumb to herd mentality though; then it pisses me right off. I'm thinking " Dumdeedum - wait a minute there is a car at my thigh why am I in the middle of the road fucking hell I succumbed to herd mentality again didn't I?"

This happens far too often. Down with herds, down! Although I seem to enter herd mentality in any herd greater than one, which does not bode well for my survival.

9 comments:

maybe said...

I'm appreciate your writing skill.Please keep on working hard.^^

Cam said...

There you go Po...keep on working hard will you ;)

Helen said...

yes. Keep on working hard.

Herds are funny to watch, so I let them live for the joy that they give me. All that the herdishness seems to do to m ndergradlings is make them walk s l o w l y which is a pest when you're trying to leads groups from point A to B

Damaria Senne said...

What's this about your having to keep working hard? Or am I being dense?
Have a great weekend.

LadyFi said...

Down with herds and sheep - hurray for loners and individualists!

po said...

Wow, you slave drivers, I am working hard, I am!

Hi new reader! Unfortunately my keyboard cannot replicate your name, but thank you for the comment.

Cam: eish but its Friday, I am on holiday :)

Helen: not you too! Have you ever been a herd yourself though, it sucks and makes you feel really sheepish, mwaha!

Damaria: I have no idea myself, blog readers seem to be slave drivers :)

Ladyfi: but have you ever had this road crossing experience?

Dora said...

I have long been aware that I often get herded in London.

One evening in the tube, I was rushing along the tunnels and staircases, almost jogging to keep up with everyone around me...and then I realised, why am I trying to keep up with everyone around me?

Where was I going? Home. Just going home from work. There was to be no engagements, no meeting anyone, no going anywhere, no doing anything. I was simply just making my way home.

So I bloody stopped and started again going at my own pace.

Which is slow. Too slow for everyone around me....and then I slowly got herded again because everyone got agro at me.

*sigh*

Kirsty said...

SURELY Cape Town could never be misery city...!

po said...

Dora: oh yes London is herd capital. It kind of terrifies me when you suddenly need to change direction and go against the stream of people, which always leads to someone getting hurt, usually me!

Kirsty: If I lived in Cape Town I would never be miserable! And that is a lie, but seriously I am living in the UK. I just put that photo up because I love it.