THE ART OF "BLANK FACE" for SOCIAL ENGINEERING PURPOSES
First time I saw what I call "blank facing" somebody is when I was at a relatives wedding in west Michigan. It was my mom's step-sister or half-sister (ie my grandpa remarried and had three children with a second wife). This was after years of "estrangement" between my grandpa and my mom & most of her sisters (all daughters from the 1st marriage) . We were invited as a family to the wedding because, apparently, the kids from the 2nd marriage still cherished a relationship with us as a family even if our grandfather didn't care for us. After the wedding, a line formed to greet the bride & her family (ie my grandfather & 2nd wife et al) and I myself decided not to go thru the line, but my mom did. And I watched from a short distance away as she passed by my grandfather (ie her father) and he "blank faced" her saying, "AND WHO ARE YOU?" My mom was apparently prepared for some sort of cruel nonsense such as this and responded, "I'M YOUR DAUGHTER". Other people who were not so aware of the history of our family and the so-called "estrangement" between my mom & most of her sisters and my grandfather were somewhat shocked judging by the looks on some of their faces. Here was my mom's dad PRETENDING he didn't recognize or know his own daughter. It was quite the moment.
And since that time I've experienced something similar in southern California where I might go to a store, or an event, or even a church and people I've seen many times, even at my doctor's office where a certain receptionist also does this, act as if they've never seen me before. One of my doctor's receptionists makes a point of asking my for all my data, even sometimes saying "Have you been here before?"
The apparent purpose of this is to try to marginalize or alienate or conduct social engineering in a way intended to convert us from a good person with a history of good citizenship, regular church attendance, even a college graduate or more, in to a legalistic relationship in which we are "just another number".
Police sometimes do this as well by reducing us to our driver's license identification number, reminding us that we are mere citizens expected to comply with laws, regardless of "who" we are. Sometimes they do it intentionally, knowing you are a new person in town and they want to create a legalistic relationship rather than respect you for any accomplishments you've had somewhere else (ie just graduated with honors from college and now you're returning to your hometown, and they want to make sure you don't get "too big for your britches' so they treat you legalistically...maybe writing you up for jay-walking when ordinarily they wouldn't bother. In other words, they have an agenda, and selective enforcement of laws is used for discriminatory purposes to socially engineer .
And it's difficult to work around this sort of mistreatment. Security guards can do it. Receptionists can do it. Clerks can do it. Church greeters or deacons can do it. They decide who they want to "recognize" or not. In some cases you might make some progress by complaining to their superior. I suppose I could talk to my doctor (who seems to like & respect me) about how I feel alienated by one of her receptionists who perpetually treats me as if she's never seen me before. And perhaps the doctor can do something. Or perhaps I can talk to the pastor at the church about feeling mistreated by a particular deacon. But it's also a difficult thing for these superiors to address without crossing certain boundaries in some cases.
This kind of passive-aggressive behavior (often by low-level persons, but not always) is what I call "blank-face" social engineering. There's a pizza place that I used to go to periodically near my parents house (where my family has a lot of positive "history" in the community going back to 1936) to get a quick slice of pizza for a $1.25. It's owned & operated by a husband & wife from Vietnam or Philippines. The wife used to be really friendly but she doesn't always work at the counter. The husband also used to be fairly nice and friendly but recently I got the blank-face treatment from him as well. He acted as if he had never seen me before, ...no smile, no normal friendliness. I left feeling a bit hurt. Maybe he wanted a tip but there was no tip jar, and it wasn't a sit-down type of place. Whatever the case may be, it caused me to resume my reflection on "blank face" behavior.
I still haven't found a fool-proof modus operandi (m.o.) to work around this sort of social engineering, other than to sometimes write letters, keep blogging about some of these situations. avoid certain people when possible etc, and MOSTLY pray about it. It also made me realize how evil people can actually create criminals to a certain extent by not treating people according to their "station in life", or by simply not treating people with appropriate dignity and respect whatever their station in life may or may not be. If we don't treat people with a certain amount of normal courtesy, kindness, decency and also "facial recognition" (after a certain amount of time of seeing the same person) we break down communities and individuals to nothing more than a bundle of atoms & molecules & an identification number, and sometimes it is to such an extent that they lose their humanity. God will hold us responsible for degrading people to such an extent. It's the opposite of good citizenship.
And it can also be done as a form of "reverse discrimination" . I think maybe I feel it more in southern California because as a "white" American with some positive history in this area (as well as positive accomplishments outside of this area) the fact is that "minorities" are actually the majority in the greater L.A. area, and they can use blank-face treatment to their advantage and to some of our disadvantage. I guess you have to keep searching for people who you can deem true friends. My only problem is that I grew up elsewhere and so I don't have some of those long-term relationships that other people have here in southern California. But I've been here long enough as a good citizen and church attendee that I should expect and require to be treated with some familiarity rather than as a "stranger" especially at places where I've been attending for quite some time now.
So that's my THOUGHT 4 the DAY.
-VK-
" If u declare with your mouth,
"Jesus is Lord," & believe in your heart
that God raised Him from the dead,
u will be saved."
Romans 10.9(