HI!

www.flickr.com/photos/82467922@N00/10445785/

Eye contact

Todrick and I went to a film at the university the other day. As we and 2-3 other people were about 10 minutes early, we were just sitting in the classroom, waiting for the film to start, minding our own business. I was talking to Todrick, when I suddenly heard a woman’s voice behind me from the other end of the room: “Is she staring at you?” The woman was obviously addressing Todrick. Since we both took this as a joke, Todrick replied smilingly: “Oh, she’s always staring at me.” I was laughing with him, of course, because nobody was serious – or so we thought! Because then this older woman cried out: “I know, because she was staring at me, too!” At that moment I looked around, still thinking this woman was joking, and said: “Really?”
Well, to make this rather short story even shorter, this woman apparently had certain issues and insisted that I was staring at her like an autistic person. Unfortunately, I got upset and started arguing back and forth with her for a little while until I finally realized that it was really she who had problems, not me.
However, this incident got me thinking – once again – about eye contact here in the US as compared to Europe, particularly Austria. From my American friends I’ve heard many times that people in Austria stare at them which makes them feel uncomfortable. On the other hand, when I walk around downtown Seattle I usually notice how everybody tries to avoid eye-contact under any circumstances, which makes me feel uncomfortable. What is it in our cultures that the one feels threatened when people look at them and the other one feels strange because everyone is trying to avoid eye-contact? When is it ok to look a stranger in the eye?
I remember some reading I did a while ago about the behavior of dogs and what it means if they look into people’s eyes. It’s interesting, because apparently dogs have only two reasons for looking at people: one, because they expect a positive reaction, and two, because they want to feel like an alpha dog. Obviously, these two reactions depend on the situation you and the dog are in.
I don’t know if this can be applied to people at all, but I do know that this is just one of many cultural differences between Austria and the US. It has gotten to a point where young Austrians who travel to e.g. New York for the first time are being warned not to look at anybody when walking around on the street because they could put themselves in a very dangerous situation. I hope this is an exaggeration because, personally, I feel it’s very sad if one is not supposed to look at other people, and anybody who has ever enjoyed sitting in a “street-café” on a sunny day in a European city and watch the people walking by, knows what I am talking about.

Enjoy “people watching”!

P.S. Maybe Americans have just become paranoid because they are actually being watched by some hidden camera all the time???

Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky is giving a talk at the University of Washington tonight. The tickets are free, however, they were sold out in 8 minutes. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get tickets either, but fortunately, Chomsky has a blog and writes regularly! Here is the link:
http://blog.zmag.org/bloggers/?blogger=chomsky
As you probably all know, Chomsky is THE leading social critic, political activist, and public intellectual in the US and everyone should listen to him. If you want to hear his lecture at UW, please tune in on 4 May to 94.9, KUOW http://www.kuow.org at 9p.m. Their program is called "The Speaker's Forum" (excellent, BTW!) and they will broadcast Chomsky's whole lecture!!!
Please, listen to Chomsky, educate yourself!

Peace