Are we clones? NO - we need to think

I just spent some days in the mighty capital of England - the breathtaking London - which I will come back to in a later post.

In the airport on my way back, I suddenly found myself highly amused. I was witnessing something that happens every day, but I guess it was the first time I really gave it any thought.

Many of us was sitting at the gate waiting for it to open. Nothing strange in that. More people coming to all the time, as the plane was fully booked. We were all sitting nicely, reading or fooling around with our phones. The obligatory few kids were also running around making noice and having a good time.

Then the magic began. Two people stood up, took their trollies and handbags and walked towards the gate! Lots of heads turned, watched and then decided that they haven't heard the nice, uniformed lady by the gate say anything yet. Decided to stay put, cause the gate wasn't open yet.

But.... an older lady packed her book in her handbag and stood up, followed the two people, and the spectacular show began.

All of a sudden almost everybody got this stressed look in their eyes. They all forgot that 45 seconds ago they decided they hadn't heard the lady tell us to form a line in front of her.  And the truth is, she hadn't said anything yet, because the gates were still closed. The dang plane wasn't even there yet! I mean there are windows all over the place. It was very obvious that the plane wasn't there yet. And still almost everybody got busy, stressed, panic was heard in their voices when they called out to the children to make the come and stay calm. Coins, magazines and phones were dropped on the floor, because everyone was now in a hurry.

A few of us just sat there, mesmerized by this show. Another woman looked at me, shook her head with her brows lifted in amazement.

What is it that makes us copy this irrational behaviour? As soon as we see a line form, we feel an inner urge to join and be part of this community of line builders.

There was absolutely no reason to make this line yet.

1. Plane wasn't there yet
2. The ground hostess hadn't called us yet
3. We all had numbered seats.
4. There still was 30 minutes till take off.

And still it happened, why? Why do we not think? Why do we copy? It was like cloned behaviour.

This form for behaviour probably goes on many times a day, in many various aspects of our day. Maybe it is about time we start using our heads, and not just rush into flok behaviour.