Underlying causes (Saturated Market)

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Underlying causes

One of the things I find truly fascinating is the concept of social dynamics. Partly because they're so tricky. It puts an extreme emphasis on context, rather than the general. There are so many seemingly insignificant factors and effects that can change how people interact, get along, and relate. And the truly interesting thing: even if you try, there are some things that you can never truly understand because of your situation. You can be aware, you can be knowledgeable, but you never really understand. This refers to things like inequality. If you are privileged, you don't know what it's like to be limited. You can study and research and empathize all you want, but in the end, only those who live it know what it's like.

It's like the expression about walking a mile in someone's shoes. Sure, that's all well and good, but it's just a mile. You can take those shoes off. And they're probably a different size than you wear anyway.

This doesn't just refer to the privileged vs. the limited. It even relates simply to common groups of people. I often see people try to generalize behaviour to a large section of the population, when it might be that they can only really generalize to the specific group of the few involved. I saw an example where people were arguing about a case where a woman cut off contact between her boyfriend and his friends because she was offended at the way they spoke to him during a poker game. Instantly there were people saying "she doesn't understand because that's how guys talk to each other!" shortly followed by "they probably went too far and they're too macho to admit it", "I'm a guy and I don't treat my friends like that", "I'm a woman and I act like that, it's not just a guy thing", and so on and so forth. My point is, there's no way ANY of these people can really say for sure. We aren't part of the group, so we don't know what normal behaviour is for them. Also, we weren't there, so we don't know what was said to cross the line or not. We love to people watch, and we love to people judge. But we are often far too removed from context to really do it well.

It's not just the factors that cause division and inequality. It's also the things that bring people together that is intriguing. I find that a strong bond between people is that of shared beliefs and ideals. Many groups of people are formed around shared values. People are often grouped by the type of music they listen to, the politics they support, what they find important to them. There's much to be said for personalities, but you can almost watch the entire structure of a social group change just from a sudden discord in values. Many adults no longer associate with their friends from childhood or high school; it's called growing apart, but it's not all because they didn't have the internet. As we all become adults, we form new opinions and see the world differently than we did before. The subtlest things can affect our attitudes. And so as we and those around us grow and mature, we often find ourselves at odds in terms of our beliefs. And if it doesn't break friendships, it can certainly strain them.

Going back to what I said about music, this is a big one. It's not just that people are drawn together because they are more attuned to a certain beat, but often because of the implications that come from that music. Every sort of music comes with ingrained ideas about the kind of values subscribed to by the people that listen to it. And it's not just in the words or the attitude of the song, but even in the social connotations that come from them. Rap, punk, classical, heavy metal, emo, blues, country...each of these words refers to a body of music that has incredible breadth and depth. To an outsider, sure, they all sound the same. But the people who enjoy each type can go on and on about the varying degrees of meaning and sound, and about how there are even vast subgenres. However, to mention any of those above words brings certain assumptions to the fore. I'm sure you've heard them before, so I won't repeat them here. Some of these are untrue, some aren't. But those assumptions remain, and are often part of the value set of people who listen to these types of music. And that is part of what brings them together: assumed similar values.

I'm going to return to my earlier point about social groups forming around similarities, because I want to talk about what I just said: assumed similar values. So often we get ourselves into trouble because we make generalizations and get ensnared in these assumed values. It's the cause of many internet flame wars, foot-in-mouth moments, workplace disciplinary action, and so on. We think we're surrounded by like-minded people, only to discover that everyone's either vastly distanced in their opinions, or maybe they all agree...but not with us. These assumptions get made regularly. The clothes someone wears, the way they speak, the places we're interacting with them, the music they listen to, even arbitrary factors play a huge role. But often it's because there ARE shared values in play, but we mistakenly assume that these values go part and parcel with some others that we hold, but others don't. That's part of what makes friendships and group dynamics so volatile sometimes. Everyone gets along fine until a previously unmentioned topic shows up, and it turns out everybody doesn't quite agree so much anymore.

This is far from comprehensive (or maybe comprehensible, you can decide that one), there is just far too much involved in this topic to give it a really thorough look. At least, in one go. Maybe more another time. Also, this is not to say there aren't other reasons for what I've talked about above. Like I said, there are tons of factors which contribute, both major and minor. I just think these ones are a little more fun to think about.

Until next time,