Mimes

Not explosives [again] but the dichromatic apparel-dawning, beret-wearing, vow-of-silence-taking street performers who do the equivalent of an interpretive dance to convey their often less than interesting message in an ornate fashion.  I recall being petrified by mimes as a child, which of course, is entirely irrational.  Aside from the fact that an adult is dressed in face paint that is so obfuscating as to borderline diabolic configurations, is refusing to talk yet making gesticulations on the order of an epileptic fit, and completely disregards normal personal space boundaries, there is obviously nothing that should frighten a child about mimes.  It is not the silence of mimes that I wish to emphasize here, but their refusal to be silent.  Surely they are not propagating sound waves with the vibrations of their larynx but they are completely commandeering a public space with their explicit messages, however unimportant they are.  Whether their message is “this is what it’s like to walk down steps” or “here’s how to pull a rope that’s tethered to an extremely heavy object” they dominate a crowded public area with their pedantic messages and refuse to let anyone ‘silence’ them (unless their present message is “here what it would be like to freeze-frame time” or “here’s what a catatonic schizophrenic pose looks like,” which are, of course, virtually the same thing).  Either way, the public arena in their general vicinity is orchestrated around their simple messages of little cognitive or social value.  I can think of a few more arenas (perhaps of the virtual social variety) that share this same predicament.  I assure you this is not a diatribe against the platform on which this very message stands, but a celebration of what it could be.  The occasional mime is interesting, and often needed for comic relief, but a city full of mimes would be beyond creepy.