Mind, on the rocks?!

The Tanaka Death Stare, Me ? I’ve seen it once or twice.  The Tanaka Death Stare is a social enigma something you see rarely, when someone stands up for the pride, takes the proverbial bullet and asks another member of the pride to correct some odd behavior.  Only to be met with a scathing glare, a mumble and in rare cases a venomous response.

No no please turn up the volume on your noise making device I don’t think the passengers at the other end of the train cart can hear your tunes that well.  Its one of those days on the train when you can see it in peoples eyes and smell it on them like sweet poison.  The weekend needs to come and it needs to come now.   And on this most glorious of days there has to be one person, one shining example of “I don’t give a crap about anyone near me” and this makes for an entertaining trip home.

The rules of social interaction, however varied they me be from country to country and region to region have existed for a very long time and are basically still the same wherever you go.  When you are alone do as you please, when in a group try not to be a dick about it.  I have had many experience, and not always polite ones, were I have been asked by a member of a temporary pride to adjust my behavior. Now I try to comply, as best possible, where I deem it to be fitting. After all, however much I think everyone on the train is there to be with me, sadly I think I am mistaken.  So if the rules exist and we all know about them why are we not simply asking, politely remember, for the offending behavior to change? I Was just thinking maybe its because the polite has died.

And I don’t blame the pride for being a little aggressive, we have become so used to a venomous response when simply asking, that in the initial exchange most of us are already charged up and ready to go at the drop of an iPod.  Now I’m not saying we are all being aggressive assholes here, but when you ask a question like a coiled viper, however sweet your voice sounds, the other animal will smell it on you and respond in kind.  Which leads to the sad fact that the pride shies away from healthy confrontation.

So here is this young lady listening to some gospel tunes….on her tablet…without bloody headphones…and I smell it in the air.  I watch the crowd around me as they start to stir uncomfortably in their seats…sort of ants in the pants moves because for the first couple of seconds they don’t realize what’s happening.  What is it that is causing the feeling of utter irritation and discomfort, penetrating my personal bubbles? I see them like a pride of hungry Lions, whom mind you are all feasting on their own carcasses of emails, chats, work, media and the likes deeply involved in their personalized Thursday feeding and this particular high pitched gospel song, well it doesn’t take very long to penetrate into their skulls.

Then prided catches the scent of a cross dressing hyena, strutting around waving a feather boa, pointing and laughing at the size of their teeth…among other things.  They start prowling around for the offending animal, and once they spot it you ask?! Do they pounce upon the poor beast ripping it limb from limb and then defecate on the offending device?! No they start looking around for other lions for some form of comfort and agreement that “this prancing hyena is out of line and we hope someone does something about it.”  Someone does something about it? Really?

I still remember the day I was hailed and revered by my temporary pride of travelling lions for asking someone to turn down their music.  I normally don’t mind and honestly find some enjoyment watching the other passengers get peeved about something like this.  However on this particular day I had a bad headache and the dude across from me was listening to some serious dub-step.  Now I openly admit that when I’m feeling ill I become a 6 foot child and politeness is not in the fore front of my thinking patterns, which combined with a crowded train would probably have resulted in some stunning news paper headline.  But sanity prevailed, I asked politely and hey presto…result…the guy pumping the music quite happily turned it down… with an apology, which I felt was quite a cool thing to do.

Funny thing is I’ve seen it time and time again where it turns horribly wrong and you see it…The Tanaka Death Stare.  Someone makes a request.  The pride agrees that the request is just.  The offending animal refuses to comply and then, then you see it in all of its horrific glory.  The pride uses the death stare on the offending animal.  You see the stares slice through it, the atmosphere changes and the offending animal succumbs to the stare and eventually complies or leaves the pride…forever.