The craziness isn't just confined to politics. What's going on?

[LAS14]

Last edited Sun Apr 2, 2017, 08:13 PM - Edit history (1)

Am I imagining things, or is the irrelevance of facts more pervasive all over our society?

Here's an example.

We have a policy of requiring to sign in at the front desk when visiting people in our 60+ unit condo. I asked board members the reason for this and was told "So the fire department knows who is in the building." I've gotten this response more than once from other unit owners. When I point out that the fire department has no way of knowing who is in the other units in the building, who is at work, shopping, etc., the other person just repeats the statement. It's like a Kafka novel.

What's going on?? Is there anything I can do about it when I bump into it one on one???

EDIT - I'm not asking whether or not the sign-in policy is reasonable. I'm asking what's going on when people cite a meaningless reason and don't acknowledge my response. It's not the front desk people that I've been asking. It's board members and their supporters. The sign-in conversation is just an example of my broader question. That is, do you encounter more non-rational conversation than you used to? And when you do, can you figure out what's going on?

[HoneyBadger]

1. They are probably targeting AirBnB rentals

[LAS14]

7. Interesting.

And your answer, then, to my broader question, is that often what seem to be irrelevant responses are actually attempts to cover up something. I'll think about this.

[matt819]

2. Call the fire department

And ask them if they care.

[LAS14]

6. Clarification.

The point is not our sign-in policy. I tried to clarify in an edit.

[surrealAmerican]

3. The desk clerks are almost certainly just giving you the answer ...

... that they were trained to. They might not believe this is the real reason themselves, but their boss wants things to be done this way, and they're not going to risk their jobs by breaking some arbitrary rule that seems harmless.

Who came up with this policy? Who would be in a position to change it?

This sort of bureaucratic silliness has been around for far longer than our current political environment.

[LAS14]

5. I've never asked a desk clerk, but you give...

... a reasonable response if those were the people I'd talked to. I tried to clarify with an edit.

[LAS14]

4. Clarification.

EDIT - I'm not asking whether or not the sign-in policy is reasonable. I'm asking what's going on when people cite a meaningless reason and don't acknowledge my response. It's not the front desk people that I've been asking. It's board members and their supporters. The sign-in conversation is just an example of my broader question. That is, do you encounter more non-rational conversation than you used to? And when you do, can you figure out what's going on?

[rgbecker]

8. You ask a good question.

Over my lifetime, I have noticed more non-rational conversation. But over the last 10-20 years there hasn't been much of an increase.
'
I attributed the increase to the increase in used of audio video equipment rather than reading the written word. For example: movies, TV, music videos. These all have decreased attention spans of the users and the conversations have followed suit. People do not complete thoughts nor do they think about things long enough to sort them into rational thoughts.

The internet hasn't helped, but rather exasperated the attention span situation.

[LAS14]

9. I think you may be on to something.

The expectation of not having to actually process incoming info leads people to treat conversations as a series of Tweets.