Janet CollinsHow You and I Make We, Make Us and THEM
February 22nd 2007 06:31
To You and I, THEY are just another group of individuals. What are they doing? Are they angry? Are they talking about US ? Do they want something? Do you think that one might be gay ? Where do I know him from ?
To THEM, You and I are nothing, everything or anything. What do they think of us? Do they care at all ? How would they feel if they knew what I was thinking...
Is this why relationships are so difficult? Because our experiences, our beliefs and our temperament can only allow for a certain kind of understanding? WE are not one and the same. WE are entities, categories divisible by the numbers used to count money, to weigh vegetables, to assign University IDs.
To YOU I am insane, impossible, over-analytical and ... The Social Critic ? Probably. To ME, you are just a number, until you comment... Then you are a personality - not a face or a tactile feeling, but simply a recognition of familiar behavioral patterns.
It's interesting how our perceptions - inevitably affected by our experiences, both real and metaphysical - affect the precision of our language.
If YOU are my friend, are you mine too? Is there anything you want to tell me? Is there anything I've been hiding that you might know, that may affect who I am to you. Who am I to you?
To THEM, You and I are a group of individuals. To You and I, they look mean - they look they may rob us. THEY don't know us. WE don't know them. How much do I know about you?
How much do you know about me?
To THEM, You and I are nothing, everything or anything. What do they think of us? Do they care at all ? How would they feel if they knew what I was thinking...
Is this why relationships are so difficult? Because our experiences, our beliefs and our temperament can only allow for a certain kind of understanding? WE are not one and the same. WE are entities, categories divisible by the numbers used to count money, to weigh vegetables, to assign University IDs.
To YOU I am insane, impossible, over-analytical and ... The Social Critic ? Probably. To ME, you are just a number, until you comment... Then you are a personality - not a face or a tactile feeling, but simply a recognition of familiar behavioral patterns.
It's interesting how our perceptions - inevitably affected by our experiences, both real and metaphysical - affect the precision of our language.
If YOU are my friend, are you mine too? Is there anything you want to tell me? Is there anything I've been hiding that you might know, that may affect who I am to you. Who am I to you?
To THEM, You and I are a group of individuals. To You and I, they look mean - they look they may rob us. THEY don't know us. WE don't know them. How much do I know about you?
How much do you know about me?
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Comment by Mrs M
Mum's Word
Love & stuff
Mrs M
Comment by AnthonyB
I had fun doing that too ! It's always nice to have a comment from you.
- Anthony
Comment by KylieW
Celebrity Obsession
I love it that as individuals we get angry when we're lumped in with a group and dealt as "them". And yet we do exactly the same thing to one another.
Fantastic post.......though I now have a headache.
; )
Kylie
Comment by AnthonyB
Halfway through writing it, I wasn't sure if anything made sense or if I've gone from tangent to tangent... to tangent to tangent... to tangent...
Thanks Kylie !!
Comment by KylieW
Celebrity Obsession
Comment by Wendi
W
Comment by AnthonyB
Hey thanks Wendi !!
Do you work at Coles ? If so, we may be already be friends. Let me know if you have red hair too. Then WE can talk about THEM for hours, next time i see you !!
I know what you mean. I never thought about who THEY may be in that statement. I always imagined a large crowd, similar to an audience, or people at a rave, or people on a beach. Just people. I imagined that they were THEY and that there was this huge thing that you had to be agreeable to this unseen entity.
Strange.., I like your reference to the Knights of the Round and Lancelot. Unless your imagining more of a poker game. Let me know, Wendi !!
Cheers for the comments !
- Anthony
Comment by Wendi
Comment by Wendi
"...never thought about who THEY may be in that statement. I always imagined a large crowd..."
Comment by AnthonyB
I can only tell you, it's something that comes with experience.
Thanks for pointing that out though. I did have a fleeting thought, whilst writing it, that it may or may not have made sense. I went with my laziness, not instinct, and said
"she'll be right"
Cheers, Wend !
- Anthony