Friday, February 02, 2007

Trains are good places to observe humans. It becomes wonderfully apparent that human beings really are like animals. I don't mean that in a monstrous sense, I simply mean that we respond to stimulus. On a peak hour train, nothing happens. So nobody does anything. People sit, stand, stare, read, listen to music. Train people look like the living dead. Humans, like most animals, don't do anything until prompted somehow to do so. Eg - I'm hungry, so I eat. I am pushed, so I move. Human reactions might be a little more complex than most animal ones, because we have a wider range of stimuli. Ours include emotions and other intangible things, more than just hunger or being tired or having an urge to mate. My action of blogging is triggered by a few conditions: I am bored, I want to remember my current train (haha pun) of thought, I want to see what other people think of it, I want to make contact with people. On the other hand, if I get up to go to the toilet, it's only for one reason: I drank too much tea. As usual. Animals don't blog because animals don't have opposable thumbs and can't type. Also because an animal's thought process doesn't run to the analytical.

7 comments:

Menchie said...

I also like observing people at the mall which I usually do when in a coffeeshop, taking a break from an activity which doesn't need much stimulus...shopping.

Anonymous said...

I am with Menchie i love watching people aimless wander and consume, makes you feel like god, with a birds eye view:)

I can see the cow bloging...
Dear dairy (typo) diary,
today i got up, got milked, ate grass, and now i am going to bed..

Not Quite as interesting as a FUnny old world, although more interesting than tennis and womens golf:)

lee said...

People on trains cease to be human!

lee said...

stace-that is so weird -I have just been checking out blogs -including aidan's and then yours -then I went and checked my own and there was a comment from you there - that is just plain weird -we must be on the same wave length today or something :).

Keshi said...

**. Humans, like most animals, don't do anything until prompted somehow to do so

wow what a neat observation Stace!

Keshi.

Stace said...

Keshi, I can't tell if you're being sarcastic!!!

Menchie/Aidan, watching people is a full-time job not to be sneezed at... there's so many of them!

Lee, I check your blog most days and I'm very hurt to find that you don't do the same for me! :)

Andrew said...

It is amazing how people step onto the train switched off, I think it is amazing when it is someone you know, who you dont normally see running under minimum power. Which happened to me today.

You stand up, wave your arms and shout "Hey Jude". You then watch their eyes as they really, really slowly come to the comprehension that
1. Their name was said.
2. Some one might be talking to them.
3. Prehaps they should look up and see who said something.
4. Oh look it is someone I know.
5. It is Andrew
6. Prehaps it was him.
7. I will say hi to him.

By this stage three stations have gone passed, Jude is running on full power and you have a great conversation. When they alight, you stay on high power and talk to someone else...

I think I have forgotten what I was going to say. I think I have lost the point (in more ways than one)

Power to the PTUA. Actually, the way the trains have been running, more power to the trains.