Today, you are a member of… Goffmania
We all deserve our own personal sociological oracle, members and you’ve got one for the week! Famed father of the Dramaturgical Approach to social interaction, Erving Goffman, tells us that we are all chewing up the scenery all the time. Whether buying a donut or presenting a new theory of gravity to the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences at Cambridge we have a whole repertoire of performance aids–strategic ambiguity, impression management, and mystification to name a few–that help us give the audience what they want, therefore maintaining our self du jour. This week your performances can be even more micromagnificent. Don’t get lazy in the details, roll around each in microcosm with the zeal of a hooker at a Strippers for Jesus Convention. Find the I in team with every slip, boner and gaff not to mention every instance of self-talk, side-sequence and metacommunication. Hi Ho quotidiana!