Now into season 18 (my son and I trail network broadcasts, preferring to do our own scheduling à la DVD or iTunes), Survivor remains in my opinion one of the best studies of human nature, group dynamics, and trust you’re likely ever gonna find.
Watch and learn.
Admittedly now still an episode or two away from the end in watching, I still think it’s safe to characterize season 18 as more of a social, as opposed to physical competition. The quote today sums it up — for these players, and for my own preferences.
Both Coach and Debbie had realized that the dynamics of the tribe had suddenly, dramatically shifted. And they were trying to curry favor with us. So basically anything we had done was basically the greatest thing that had ever been accomplished. You know, ‘What a tremendous blind-side.’
It worried me a little bit, because I would rather have an honest blow-out, than having people smiling saccharin smiles at me, and, you know, plotting something else.
That, said by Steven Fishbach, episode 11, “The Both Went Bananas.”
And he’s not just right in style, but in prescience. In my own experience with others, when you’re dealing with obvious upset in another individual who seeks to mis-characterize it, you’re dealing with a deception that inevitably manifests itself as an attack on you.
This isn’t “just being nice.” It’s their way of trying to buy time.
For what?
