There are two kinds of problems in the world, no prom date and too many prom dates. Now I know the more formal thinkers among you will say that this is just another way of talking about scarce resource issues but it isn't, really. Think about it. The no prom date problem is really a whole bunch of problems incorporating tribal customs, ambiguous rituals, perceived or actual lack of power (or agency) and the attendant desperation that evokes, the question of whether to make the requisite purchases and rentals ahead of time on the chance of a date or put it off until a date is secured, and the social performance of simultaneously seeking a date and pretending one isn't a total loser.
The too-many prom date problem involves a host of entirely different decisions to be made: weighing options in a social context, thinking long-term or short-, listening to heart or head, dealing with the messiness of letting someone down, obsessive self-questioning about ethics and "the right thing," and of course quietly crowing that indeed, you have more than one date to the prom.
Do you prefer one problem to the other? It's an interesting question. At this point in my life I find I am deaf to the siren song of most prom-like social customs. Absent this pull, who really cares if one gets to go or must hurt someone in order to go? Still, hurting a person doesn't get any easier over time (for me at least) while remaining content at home (with a book) does.
1 comment:
Is a prom always a metaphor, even in high school? There is no "real" of the prom -- the prom is always already a simulacrum of a simulacrum. So WG is wrong, above, in thinking that we ever have a safe distance from something unreal.
That said, I'd rather have too many prom dates.
-- the masked economist.
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