Page 26 - The Religion Of The Ignorant
P. 26
THE RELIGION OF THE IGNORANT
Behaving as if one were very calm when in fact one has a storm
raging inside,
Engaging in sudden changes of meaningless behavior, such as
turning serious in the middle of laughter,
Starting to behave exuberantly from having been very calm, or
emitting sudden guffaws of laughter,
Suddenly moving from normal speech patterns to exaggerated
ones—raising one's tone of voice for example, or starting to speak in
an excessively low voice; giving the same impression simultaneously
by one's facial expression or gestures,
Showing off by means of adopting unusual postures,
Refusing to behave warmly until someone else has taken an in-
terest in one,
Ignoring those who do take an interest in one, looking down
one's nose at people,
Seeking to be useful to or attract the attention of those who ig-
nore, belittle or look down their noses at one,
We can cite some of the methods employed to attract other peo-
ple's attention as follows:
Giving the impression one is very busy,
Giving the impression of being distracted or worried,
Deliberately making mistakes or causing a scene,
Describing an event one did not witness as though one actually
had...
The above displays are based on role playing. Some examples are:
Behaving as though one were surprised, angered or pleased,
even though that is not actually the case, and to imply this, using the
appropriate facial expressions—raising one's eyebrows, frowning,
glaring, looking askance, pursing the lips and eyes; embracing
24