mtpolitics.net

An Odd Thought

As I’ve noted elsewhere, I’m fascinated by the tendency for humans — as a group — to do the right thing. Whether it’s driving in the “correct” lane, or using natural timing for stop lights, we humans as a group do alright with vaguely defined social rules. (Except when it comes to uncontrolled intersections See pg 138 (actually 32 of 60) of this document. You can ask the Spousal Unit™, I’m especially vigilant about uncontrolled intersections.)

Something I’ve noticed about people is that in moderately large groups, we sing in tune, as a whole.

If you listen to live albums of almost any group/musician, when they ask the crowd to sing along, it is invariably in tune. While you can hear the outliers, the vast majority of the crowd is pretty much perfectly in tune.

Also, if you go to an event where the Pledge of Allegiance is recited, almost everyone will use the same cadence. Again, there are outliers, but if you listen to it as a whole, you’d never notice them.

However, when you sit (stand/kneel/lay/whatever) next to one of the outliers, they tend to drag you down, rather than you lifting them up. (Assuming, of course, that you’re not one of the outliers. And I’m pretty sure that you’re not. I’m talking about someone else — that guy or gal next to you, probably.) You’re concentrating on the cadence or melody that you know, but somehow your brain spends more time processing the person next to you who is out of whack with everyone else. Further, that person really doesn’t affect more than the few people who are within a seat or two of where they are. It seems like since they are affecting you, you should, in turn, affect those around you.

I don’t exactly know what this has to do with anything, but the next time you’re saying the pledge in a large group, or singing the Star Spangled Banner, or saying the Nicene Creed, notice how the folks around you, and perhaps even you, are just a bit off, but when you listen to it as a whole, it’s just damn near perfect.

I know I’m probably not the first one to make this observation, but isn’t that something?