Extreme weather dissolves the ordinary rules of social introduction.
Evidence
Finding that there would be risk in trying to ride till nightfall, in the early afternoon I left the road and went two miles into the hills by an untrodden path, where there were gates to open, and a rapid steep-sided creek to cross; and at the entrance to a most fantastic gorge I came upon an elegant frame house belonging to Mr. Perry, a millionaire, to whom I had an introduction which I did not hesitate to present, as it was weather in which a traveler might almost ask for shelter without one. — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 164
Categorization
- SEED: An essay on the frontier etiquette of asking for shelter: how wilderness travel collapsed class distance faster than any city custom did.
- CANDY: She presented her letter of introduction anyway, “as it was weather in which a traveler might almost ask for shelter” without one.
- XREF: connects to: Physical social boundaries gave utterances meaning that collapse destroys — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the…, 548; Crises create exceptional possibilities by suspending normal rules of conduct. — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 760; Disasters forge new social bonds via shared external threat. — John Drury and Chris Cocking and Steve Reicher, Everyone for themselves? A comparative…, 16 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Crises create exceptional possibilities by suspending normal rules of conduct.
#corroborates(1.00) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 760 - Physical social boundaries gave utterances meaning that collapse destroys
#complicates(0.90) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 548 - Atomized societies become dangerously volatile during crises.
#complicates(0.90) — Anton Jäger, Hyperpolitics, 240 - Disasters forge new social bonds via shared external threat.
#complicates(0.85) — John Drury and Chris Cocking and Steve Reicher, Everyone for themselves? A comparative…, 16 - External danger and social isolation drive members toward group conformity.
#complicates(0.85) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4142