Objectifying a Complete Stranger
Let me describe an experience I once had in Florida at a Tai Chi seminar I attended. I was one of a group of twenty - strangers, all - who were being put through our paces together and instructed in a particular form (A choreographed series of movements). We came from all over the US, and all we had in common wa our interest in Tai Chi.
The master, who was leading the session, stood on a park bench to demonstrate the form, while we remained on the ground and tried to copy what he was doing. As we progressed, the master would ask us each to perform the form without his guidance so that he could see how we were getting on. What struck me about the exercise was the way in which when we each attempted it without following the master we would all get stuck in the same place.
Whenever this happened, the master would start us off again, having explained where we had gone wrong. We would dutifully begin again, but stop once more at the same time further on in the form. Initially it’s hard to imagine how this could happen: we all learned the form individually, directly from the master, and yet we all failed at exactly the same point. The explanation is that we were acting with a common mind and common purpose. This was the mentality of a herd - even a hive. We may think we are following the master, but the greater influence on us during the learning process is that exerted by the group as a whole.
And bear in mind that the phenomenon I describe took place among a group of strangers. A similar effect would be much more pronounced in a group of people who knew each other well. To act in this way is clearly innate to human beings - it is part of the way in which our species is programmed to function. No person is exempt from this - whether we consider ourselves outsiders or insiders. When aware of the phenomenon we may be able to counteract it to a point, but we can never hope to escape it altogether. Even if we were to succeed in doing so we would still be defining ourselves in relation to a group - those who do function under the influence of mob-mentality, and by defining ourselves in this way we would find we were unable to escape the influence of such groups upon our lives.
There are benefits associated with belonging to a group, but there is also a price to pay. The more a person becomes a part of a tribe the less they are able to function as an individual. They become indistinguishable from the group as a whole, meaning that the group is not a conglomerate of individuals, but an entity in its own right, acting under the strain of collective will.
Tattoos, piercings, uniforms, even hairstyles, all signal our tribal affiliation to those outside as well as those within the tribe. In this regard, there is no difference between the grey pin-striped suit worn by the banker and the gang colors worn on the jacket of a member of a motorcycle club.
This identification with tribes is so deeply ingrained in us that whenever we encounter someone for the first time one of the first things we do is categorize them in terms of which tribe they belong to. If they do not fit any tribe we know of, we simply label them as weird and place them in the tribe called the eccentrics. This then becomes the immediate basis upon which we judge them as good or bad, friend or foe, high or low status, even attractive and unattractive.
And so we objectify everyone around us, reducing them to their bare characteristics and capacities and viewing them through the tinted lenses of our tribal prejudices. At the same time, we are aware that they are treating us likewise: just as we objectify them, so they objectify us.
When we objectify other people in this way we cause ourselves to be objectified too. We define ourselves according to the shared characteristics of the tribe, and in so doing dismiss any chance we might have to maintain a meaningful relationship. This is the cost of tribal life - we must cease to be individual for the good of the whole. The tribe resembles something of a hive-mind, and we are merely drones. Is it worth the sacrifice? This is a decision we must all make for ourselves.
John Berling Hardy is dedicated to piercing the veil of myths which support our virtual world from that keep us from the truth. For more of his writings please visit www.playingtheplayers.com
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