There’s a scene early on in the film Midnight Cowboy. Young gorgeous Jon Voight is a hick in the big city (New York), from the middle of nowhere (Texas, iirc). He sees someone (a “bum”) lying unconscious on the sidewalk and instinctively strides towards him to see what help he can offer. Then he looks at everyone else, walking on, ignoring the bum. And so he stops, uncertain of what he is supposed to do if he wants to fit in, and then walks away.
Our ability to see, to think, to act, is shaped by our social circumstances. That, surely, is not controversial. And explains a lot.
Look at this graph of sea surface temperatures. .
It doesn’t make sense. This cannot possibly be happening. And one of the reasons it cannot possibly be happening is that if it were true, everyone would be freaking out, wouldn’t they? Because we as humans are definitely rational creatures, who respond to threats in a timely and rational (that word again) manner, unaffected by those around us. Oh yes.
And here we are.
marchudson.net 
Hi Marc,
To say that humans are definitely rational creatures is a slight exaggeration!
Cheers, Ian
PS. I couldn’t work out how to reply on the web page.
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Marc, the comment “Our ability to see, to think, to act, is shaped by our social circumstances”, reminds of a quote from another movie. Being “Lonely are the brave”, you are doomed if you go with the flow.
Adding that to the long list of films to watch while we still have electricity and internet….
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonely_Are_the_Brave