Public-spiritedness diminishes as expression moves from backstage to frontstage.

Evidence

This chapter explores this desire for a kind of human companionship that tries to distance itself from all institutions except commercial ones. What are the political possibilities of such a setting? How did participants at the country-western dance clubs prevent publicly minded conversation from entering the fun atmosphere, ‘‘frontstage’’? What did members assume group life was? Why did it always have to be so funny and irreverent? The chapter begins by outlining two possible interpretations of this group. After a sketch of the scene, the story analyzes non-verbal communication; then, hidden, whispered backstage conversation and one-on-one conversation; and then group conversation. At each step away from implicit to explicit, and from backstage to frontstage, the sense of public-spiritedness evaporated a bit more; backstage whispers and even eyebrow-wiggles communicated more generosity, less bigotry and racism, more public spirit, than frontstage, loud, group conversation. — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 655

Categorization

• QUESTION: That backstage whispers carry more generosity than frontstage group talk inverts the usual assumption that groups pull members toward civic-mindedness. Worth pursuing: is this a general mechanism of group life or peculiar to these private people?
• XREF: connects to: Public-spirited talk flourishes backstage, not in public spheres — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics: how Americans…, 1775; Activists sound less publicly minded in public than in private — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics: how Americans…, 1205; Some suffering resists articulation when public dialogue is skewed (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Activists switch to depoliticized language when speaking in public. #exemplifies (0.88) — Nina Eliasoph, “Close to home”, 118
• Activists sound less publicly minded in public than in private #exemplifies (0.85) — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 1205
• People publicly express more or less prejudice than they privately hold. #corroborates (0.78)
• Some suffering resists articulation when public dialogue is skewed #qualifies (0.72)