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It's weird but "People started snapping their fingers in acclamation." is a real thing as clapping with hands may harm people through for example making loud no
by thinkingemote 3y ago
It's weird but "People started snapping their fingers in acclamation." is a real thing as clapping with hands may harm people through for example making loud noises . It was given in the article as an early example of the idiosyncratic state that the author was working in.
It's not a subculture, it's regular corporate Human Resources behaviour in a few places. In my opinion it's often a symptom of something wrong rather than a mindful remedy.
On it's own clicking fingers can be good especially if some in the audience really do have trouble - for example a group meeting of certain sufferers. Most people would encounter it as part of a range of other idiosyncratic symbols and activities. It has become something that is done by default than something done specially.
Going further, it's different from a subculture. It becomes more than something that might be harmless but a kind of religious activity - something that both protects against evil people who are against them and something that promotes group unity within by participating.
- ajkjk 3y agoI don't think it's got anything to do with loud noises. I think it's (roughly) a hippie culture thing? Or maybe just a sort of hippie-infused west-coast liberal culture. I'm not really sure but that's triangulating: the first people I knew who did it were either from California or in backpacking / outdoorsy communities (or more woo stuff: ecstatic dance and astrology types). It was surprising at the time but has gotten a lot more common since then.
- Tabular-Iceberg 3y agoExactly right. Clapping to show approval is clearly bourgeois behavior, but they have to stop using that word because the fact that they themselves represent the arch-bourgeoisie just causes too much cognitive dissonance. Turns out being the victors of the culture war isn’t all sunshine and rainbows like one would think.
- ajkjk 3y agoI don't think that interpretation holds up at all. None of the people doing this are really aware of why they're doing it, it's just something that people they knew, or cultures they were in, did. In the communities it came from it was a less intrusive way to show assent or support or clapping, like for instance how people snap at poetry readings because clapping is a bit too loud. It is really not an ideological thing, just a natural solution to a natural social problem of how to behave in a particular situation. Your bizarre reaction, pattern-matching it to a bunch of ideological stuff, reveals a lot about your but nothing about them.
- ajkjk 3y agoabout *you
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]