2009.10.08 A Surprising Social Skill
The social skill I'm contemplating is surprising mostly because it's one that I have innately. And, in that infuriating way that reality often has, it's a social skill that most people seem to lack.
I call this social skill, "getting the hell out of the way".
Perhaps it's the relatively recent development of automobiles that has left most humans functionally inept at navigating along multi-lane highways or through parking lots without getting in each other's way. But what is it about shopping malls and supermarkets that prompts most people to find the exact worst place and time to pose dramatically or gaze blankly?
Looking at these hordes of people placing themselves with utter neglect to how it affects anybody else, it appears as though their field of view is not actually limited to just 10° directly in front of them. Thus it seems reasonable to assume that their antisocial inability to get the hell out of the way is a primarily mental malady. The kind that would be best modified with a wiffle bat.
Before we distribute blunt instruments of behaviour modification, though, it could be hoped that there would be some other way to encourage people to spend the bare modicum of intellectual effort to consider the possible impact of their vectors on others. One part situational awareness, two parts extrapolative thought, and a dash of pulling one's head out of one's narcissistic ass. Or, failing that, just habitually moving off to the side or into the slow lane or whatever. Anything other than ignoring the rest of humanity until it gets annoyed enough to have a swing at you with a wiffle bat.
NOTE: Wiffle bats are used euphemistically.