bandwagon effect
Is it fair to be really pissed at somebody in crisis?
I know she is having troubles right now and somehow, that is exactly what pisses me off. Because she completely dismisses the fact that we’re friends and she seems to undermine my capability to understand and help her through it. I know she doesn’t always reach out, somehow it is something she just doesn’t do. But of my understanding of her is that she doesn’t want to sit just waiting for things to happen. But no matter how much we talk about it, she doesn’t do anything. Mainly, I’m just really pissed that she seems to want this. She seems to choose this isolation, this pushing away of people, including me. So what exactly, in a completely unsarcastic question, are friends for?
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I didn’t know mass hysteria was a disease. According to the latest episode of House, though, it is. I’ve just read the recap (since the episode is not yet available on tv-video.net) and it tells of the passengers in the plane who also become symptomatic as one of them showed signs of meningitis. And in a weird coincidence, I also read of mass hysteria being present as audiences watched The Exorcist (1973) for the first time in theatres.
According to the ever-trustworthy wikipedia.org, mass hysteria is defined as “the manifestation of the same hysterical symptoms by more than one person. It may begin when a group witnesses an individual becoming hysterical during a traumatic or extremely stressful event. A potential symptom is group nausea, in which a person becoming violently ill triggers a similar reaction in other group members.” Also, the entry mentions that mass hysteria manifests itself “in situations where there is a problem that is endangering their society, but the people want to find a scapegoat and take out their frustrations out on him/her/them (often fatally to the scapegoat) instead of looking for the cause of the problem and potentially finding themselves to be guilty.”
To tell the truth, this is actually the first time that I’ve heard of mass hysteria. I thought that when people panic, they would just want to get away as soon as possible. But as curious creatures as human beings are, they not only panic but also infect other people with their frenzy.
There are actually lots of documented cases of mass hysteria in the Philippines. Usually, it rolls around summertime, every after three years. It is the time when people lose all rationality, intelligent thinking and go around blaming obvious ’scapegoats’ with mostly fatal consequences. I think we call it “Campaign Period”.
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Off to Tropezz! Will continue this tomorrow.
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