In my entry entitled Week 2, Take 2, I wrote that I had one more part of of the study for this week to complete. I have just done so, and it comes under the strand "Ordered Lives".
This is a name which I feel would cause the most to think about, since we probably consider ourselves, for the most part, to be free.
Here comes the but. I took very little notes on this strand, compared to others. This is not because there is any less to consider, or that I am becoming to cocky to think that I need as many notes.
To quote Kurt Russel's character in Big Trouble in Little China, "It's all in the reflexes".
Why is this so? Simply put, we learn order from an early age, and it is reinforced in everyday life, to the extent that we hardly even notice that it is happening, rather than the effect of it.
Whilst watching the associated DVD, I noticed more of what is taken to be out of order more obviously than than what was not. Even as I type this, I am reminded of using the Tube on my only visit to London. Everyone on the escalators were standing to one side, patiently waiting to step of at the end. When I pointed it out to my friend, he remarked that it is how people in London do it. He could confidently say that, having been there far more often than I, but could not explain why.
So, tomorrow, as you go about your business, try to spot what people or environmental objects are doing to keep order. Who knows, it may even cheer up your day. If 7 million people in one of the world's biggest cities can fall into line, then what else can be achieved through learned behaviour, and is it necessarily a good thing?
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