Small Talk or a Longing for Nice Words?

In class we acknowledged our seemingly superficial interactions with others in life after reading what Thoreau thinks in Walden “We meet at very short intervals, not having had time to acquire any new value for each other. We meet at meals three times a day, and give each other a new taste of that old musty cheese that we are.”
Thoreau is arguing that many times we only talk and see each other for the sake of talking and seeing each other, not because we actually have a strong need to reminisce with this person. I see this everyday in my life and the lives of my friends around me sitting down for dinner and making conversation that seems too trivial, making small talk with people you kind of know, that repetitive conversation that comes every day or so “how are you?.. “I’m fine, you?”.
We all know we do this, but the question is why, when many of us don’t care about the questions we are asking?
I have come to a conclusion that we use this form of communication to fill an emotional void of a desire for a connection to others. If we didn’t engage in this small talk there would be no kind words from strangers and faces that are familiar, to fill our days.
If people decided to stop replying or asking the same artificial questions then our days would be faced with less human interaction which is what we long for. It is the fact that we are asking at all genuinely or not, makes the days go by more pleasant.

The Herd

I was saddened to hear the news this holiday weekend about the mob of bargain hungry shoppers on Black Friday that killed a Long Island Wal-Mart employee. The idea that people were willing to lose all self-control enough to end up killing and injuring others in order to buy “bargains,” is a frightening picture of the people of our nation. Even in a time of financial peril where to some every dollar has more value we see ourselves spending our money instead of saving, which points to the extreme pressure upon this society as a whole that says consumerism is the way to go. People are so encouraged in so many ways (TV ads, magazine spreads, fashion magazines etc, etc) to keep buying mindlessly. This idea of so many conforming, because of what surroundings says is the right thing to do sharply contradicts Emerson who believes that “Who so would be a man, must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself and you shall have the suffrage of the world,” as said in Self-Reliance. Emerson thinks that a great man cannot come to be by following the crowd . That this conformity seen in wanting these possessions and literally following the herd for these possessions speaks of the decadence of our society.