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This topic comprises 4 pages: 1 2 3 4
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Topic: Loews Cineplex Riot
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William Hooper
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1879
From: Mobile, AL USA
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 01-10-2005 03:42 AM
Things expected "on demand" wouldn't extend past specific examples into generality.
What you're looking for is "Narcissistic Bahavior". A descripition of its extension into a personality disorder is at
http://www.behavenet.com/capsules/disorders/narcissisticpd.htm
It's a little whirring mechanism developed from the same parts in different ways, but they're indicated just in the description. There's typically a very strong, protected "personal fable" which diverges wildly from the actual description of the person, what he's done, who he is. The demand for approval is the tip-off of a fear of seeming vulnerable, & a screaming fear of being "unmasked". Many get to a behavior of unmotivated hostility by using it as a mask, then finding, they *like* being jerks because narcissism is finding a reward just from self-interest.
Because it's social, it requires utilizing prevalent social tastes. The behavior could be ended by embarassing the person, but social prevalence now for an "outlaw" image & adoption as a personal fable makes display of discipline pretty much just a reinforcement. Negative reinforcement has become really awkward to devise. If the behavior is not rewarded - people ignore it, undermining the grandiosity, it folds up, but like a lot of things when they crash, they can make a mess. If there's a crash of the divergence of an unsupported self-image & reactions of others to the person seeking approval or other indication of personal social significance, they can get violent. Turning your back might communicate an honest disinterest, but it can be dangerous. Beware the disarm.
Jim Zeigler's story shows how social situations can be built around giving approval for narcisstic behavior. It's success is probably not likely negative reinforcement (punishment) in the form of arrests, chucking outs, etc. (which were probably grandstanded with an air of triumph), but removing the reward by removing the audience from the folks who needed to have a grandiose self-image reinforced by social response. At home, nobody can see your act.
(That's the reason I think the capital punishment is pretty much a non-deterrent, & the sentence can actually be attractive to these folks. Death Row has been increasingly romanticized from the time of the Warner Brothers gangster movies; somebody on death row is somebody famous. Add to that a persistient detached idea of self from mortality typical to personal fables, & it becomes less of a deterrent. However, if the consequences are anonymous residence for life in a cell, it becomes *very* unattractive. Nothing to do but work unsuccessfully on appeals. Imagine spending the rest of your life doing homework by yourself.)
I think that the interesting thing about narcissistic behavior, & personal fables is that personal fables are now more often persisting into adulthood. You can separate them easily from aspirations, which is what you typically read reports of from folks in the centuries preceding the 20th. Back then, those folks considered delusional cases of personal ideas of identity which were romanticized & unsupported. They're more typical now, & it's likely because of the availability of useful "stock" for folks who need it to choose from presented by a deeper store of widely available romanticized images in music, movies & TV. Have you noticed that country music & contemporary urban black music formats have become pretty much the same thing: de-individualized, claimed-successful social types, romanticized & unrealistic, but with which people who are completely different believe themselves to be like exactly? Metal music in the 70s was the same way: you'd see pretty much socially irrelevant guys with booming speakers (6x9's, man!) in old Camaros blasting Led Zeppelin, nodding their heads, & believing they really were just like the boasting, incredibly socially & sexually successful subject of the song.
Pretty much what gives it away is that it's externally applied for protection & concealment of what's underneath; it's like formica, & it's just as obvious in its fakery. Narcissistic types (boasting, physically & socially hostile, etc.) are the ones you always hope to get in a poker game. They only have one "act" which is too big, & it's spotted fast. They give it all away.
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Jim Ziegler
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 753
From: West Hollywood, CA
Registered: Jul 99
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posted 01-16-2005 05:51 PM
William,
I think that our success was less because we were denying trouble makers their audience (most of them were just teens looking for a hangout and doing those annoying teenage things like making noise and fighting), but more because we made it an unplesant and expensive place to hang out. Teens were not allowed to be anywhere but a box office line if they didn't have a ticket. Once they got a ticket, they weren't allowed to hang out, but were rather ushered into their auditorium. If they became disruptive, they were kicked out without a refund. If they were uncooperative, they were kicked out without a refund. If they left their theatre an excessive number of times, they were kicked out without a refund. A few of these kids did make a scene when being kicked out, and were then delt wiht by off-duty PD, but most of them just whined about it on their way out the door.
These kids finally moved on because their were places they could hang out cheaper and without having to deal with constant harrassment of security staff.. Most of these kids ended up at completing theatres or hanging out at other places.
The big benefit to us is that after we ran out all of these teens (which was about 50% of our crowd on a saturday night), our attendance increased by 11% as the families and surburban crowds came back- which took the theatre from being unprofitable to profitable.
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Thomas Procyk
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1842
From: Royal Palm Beach, FL, USA
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 01-17-2005 11:04 AM
Good point about the baby thing, Martin. You should know by now that other people's kids CAN DO NOTHING WRONG and HOW DARE anyone suggest that their angel is disrupting other people!! ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
A fight broke out at our sub-run theater about a year ago when we got complaints of a crying baby in some R-rated movie. The female manager went in there to speak with the mother who INSISTED it was not her kid. This was while the kid was swinging on the railing, kicking the manager!! So she simply asked the family to step into the lobby. BIG MISTAKE!!
The family (mother, father, and 3 other kids) started SUCH a commotion that THEY ARE NOT THE ONES making the noise, that the show had to be stopped until we got them out of the theater, which led to the manager being swung at, having baby formula squirted at her, and a call to the cops. People get SO DEFENSIVE when they're wrong. ![[uhoh]](graemlins/uhoh.gif)
That's why I applaud theaters with a "No children under 6 after 9 - no exceptions!" policy.
=TMP=
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William Hooper
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1879
From: Mobile, AL USA
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 01-18-2005 01:41 AM
quote: Martin Brooks
Crime is supposed to be way down in this country - why are movie theaters getting targeted by teens? And...are they really teens? Or are they 20-somethings?
I'll bet it's under-21's. When the legal drinking age was raised to 21, this left all the people 18 & over (out of high school) & under 21 (too young to go to the bars) with no place left to socialize. A movie theatre isn't a place constructed for socializing: go in, sit down, leave; social interaction is undesirable & (attemptedly) prohibited. But those folks no longer have any other place to go to see new people (except the mall), no place constructed *specifically* for socializing - like bars, clubs, etc. - where they basically learn how to act.
That other bad part of it is that those folks aren't being effectively socialized now, either: in the bars, they'd learn what behavior makes them doesn't work for them socially, makes them unattractive, etc., but at a theatre, the social feedback isn't expected to cover those issues. It sort of reinforces narcissistic behavior by not having any social rewards (like at a club) for appropriate social behavior. You just get bounced at a theatre (hopefully, but not by weenies that are worried that they won't bring their $10 bucks next week). All the "bad" behavior you see is just the expected first try in a limited repertoire of methods of personal display. You pick up new ones watching others, seeing what works, getting feedback, experimenting, etc.
"We could drink when we were your age, but you aren't allowed to because you're not grown up & socially & sexually irrelevant like us socially failed old folks!"
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