When the World Dances Around You, Dance With It

According to Bob Wiley, “There are two types of people in this world: Those who like Neil Diamond, and those who don’t.”

Bob is the title character played by Bill Murray in the movie “What About Bob?” It was released in 1991. It’s hilarious. If you’re unfamiliar, I highly recommend it.

The quote is from a scene where Bob is talking with his therapist, played by Richard Dreyfuss.

I always think about that quote when I have my “two types of people in this world” moment. And that happened today.

Do you remember the flash mob craze back in the early 2000s?

In case you don’t, it’s a big group of people that convenes quickly in a public place to dance to a song. Some of the mobs could be quite large, and the performances were sometimes elaborate.

I ran across a compilation video online of flash mobs. It was quite entertaining. The video had scenes from probably 50 different performances.

The thing that made the video fun to watch for me was the reaction of the people who weren’t involved — the ones who suddenly and unwittingly became the crowd.

And I learned something.

I hate to break it to you, Bob, but there are actually three types of people in the world.

The first group is the group that smiles and claps when something like a flash mob happens.

These are the people who hold the door for you when entering a store. They’re the ones who let you go in front of them when you’re trying to pull onto a busy street.

They recycle.

This is the group we should aspire to belong to in my opinion.

The second group is made up of people who spent the entire event either photographing it or videoing it.

These are the people who would rather chronicle the moment than enjoy the moment.

They are the driving force behind Mark Zuckerberg’s fortune.

We know where they ate. We know who they ate it with. We know what they watched on TV. We know just about everything about their lives.

They should start a newspaper column if they think we’re interested in that.

Hey, I’m a lot of things. But I’m no hypocrite.

Still, though, when I go to a concert I’m not going to video it for social media. I’m going to enjoy it.

Now, I could draw a Venn diagram here that shows overlap between this group and the first one.

Those people who post the highlight reel of their lives on social media certainly could also belong to the shiny, happy people group.

Does this give us a fourth group? I’m not sure. My mathematics theory game isn’t that strong.

That brings us to the last group.

The serial curmudgeons.

These are the people who don’t want to be there. They don’t want to have any fun, and they don’t want anyone else to either.

They complain about the price of gas. They complain about the price of everything. They watch too much cable news.

They can be men or women, but let’s face it: they’re probably men.

In the video that sparked me to make this groundbreaking sociological discovery, they were all men.

Come on, guys. It’s just a bunch of kids dancing.

And they’re not even close to your lawn.