APPLAUSE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20402, 2 November 1929, Page 1 (Supplement)

APPLAUSE.

♦ ARE WE INDIFFERENT?

BT IXEWEL2N LEE.

No person is indiffereut to public opinion no matter how vehemently he professes his indifference. In fact, the more marked is this attitude tho more certain is it to be a pose. Ifc ia merely another example of the person wishing to persuade himself into tho belief of what ho hopes is true. When he succeeds—for people are particularly susceptible to persuasion when ifc comes from within—he can say jauntily, " Pff! What do I care what they think 1" and thus establish his superiority; but the discerning ones can detect tho doubt that ia behind all jauntiness. Similarly no ono is deaf to applause. Parenthetically, I am not unaware of the apparent exceptions. Colonel Lawrence, of Arabian fame, i 3 careful to avoid the limelight. Lindbergh, ono of America's idols, did not appear to enjoy the public expression of feeling. Yet these facts do not prove indifference —merely a disinclination to bask. Appreciation is always gratifying and is one of tho strongest incentives to effort. Therefore, without proof to tho contrary. I can again assert that no one is deaf to applause. Applause is like wine, intoxicating. Some, especially those unused to it, cannot indulge without its effects becoming apparent, while others, more hardened (or less vain), can apparently assimilate an endless amount without becoming drunk. A taste for it has not to be acquired, for it is there, innate, in every one of us. It explains the average child's tendency to " show.-offand if foolish parents could only refrain from giving their applause it would do much toward stopping the growth of an undesirable habit.

Many people occasionally behave in a manner quite inconsistent with their true or normal selves. True and normal wouid generally be accepted as synonymous terms, but, ifc is debatable. It is debatable whether this behaviour is or is not the behaviour of their true selves. It is not the behaviour of their normal selves, because what they are normally is something they have achieved consciously built up more or less in accordance with the dictates of the society in which they live. What they are truly is another matter. It is the true or inner self that, desires applause : the outer or normal' self affects indifference to it. Actors and Politicians. Actors, politicians and soap box orators lap ifc up openly. There is no hypocrisy about them, no hypocrisy, that is to say (before you exclaim), as regards their attitude toward their public's show of appreciation. The politician who knows bis speech and his audience knows where the clapping of hands would punctuate ifc and will pause expectantly in those places. Ifc is his reward for his labour. And how cheaply he earns it. He merely has to present his facts, or what he believes (let us hope) are facts, in the most striking manner possible to achieve the maximum number of claps. He realises, too, that he can bo most spectacular by belittling his opponents. A Chinaman displaying his bananas is actuated by motives not dissimilar to those of the politician 011 his platform. In fact, the Chinaman is more honest because ho is more limited. He is not allowed to put up a notice stating that his rival sells rotten fruit. The Soap-bos Orator. Some people consider that the soap-box orator is a brave man because he steps out, from his fellows and offers himself as a butt for their ribaldry and just merely to have tho opportunity of putting his pefc theories an.d ideas before them. They consider that, only intense zeal for a cause or the desire to enlighten could give him the strength to become indifferent to his humiliation. These people who consider thus are putting themselves iu the man's place and flattering liim unduly. Ifc is t.iie desire for an audience that places him there. The sea of heads, with faces toward him, with ears cocked to catch his every word, constitute a triumph, real and absolute. Nothintr is more intoxicating—l am frquently struck by the appositeness of this word—.than to hear your own voice booming out over the upturned heads and to feel that by your vehemence or by the magic of your personality, or perhaps by your sincerity or by anything else whatever, these people are entirely under your sway and dominion. You dominate. For the moment you have a delicious sense of power. That is the dream of the soap-box orator, but, it seldom happens thus. Seldom is ins vehemence or his personality or liis sincerity sufficient, to quell UlO facetious hecklers who merely desire an evening's entertainment. The orator can continue to orate only because he is pachydermia or optimistic. Some day he thinks, they will listen aud applaud. A Criterion of Success. Tho actor, of course, realises that he has to have tho maximum number of claps if he wishes to have a house in St. James' Square or wherever the Remuera of London is. The noise of the audience is an indication of the box-office receipts. But, applause means more than that: it ministers to his self-esteem, and from the time, the curtain rises until it, descends he works to get as much as he can, for ifc is a criterion of success. The film star has to console himself with a salary of four hundred pounds a week, certainly a substantial consolation. But, the dry clicking of an inhuman machine taking photos must seem a poor substitute for an appreciative audience. I can imagine him attending the screening of liis own film and listening delightedly to every sympathetic noise. I can even imagine him buying scats for a number of street urchins provided that they clap continually throughout, and he would soon forget, if he were human, that he had paid for his applause. Tom, Dick and Harry. Actors and politicians provide the more obvious examples; Tom. Dick and Harry differ from them only ill degree. iom memorises the story he has heard, not from tho altruistic motive of providing amusement for liis friends but that he may add to his prestige as a raconteur. As a rule there is more pleasure felt by the person who tells the story than by the person who hears it. Ifc is obvious that the former could feel no intrinsic interest in the story itself, for he must know it prefectly. but. as long as 110 tells ifc it is never hackneyed. One cannot take a clap at. its sound value, because people applaud for different reasons. Some there are who may bo relied upon to clap in the specified places; their clapping is perfunctory and meaningless. Others clap from a sense of duty because they appreciate the effort, rather than the result. Others clap lightly and daintily because they feel that any degree of heartiness would be a vulgar display of feeling. Others again clap spontaneously aud vigorously because they can't help themselves. Only in the latter case is the performer justified in his self-congratulation. It is said that a woman considers she is arguing when she is merely repealing her opinions, but repetition (as every woman knows) is an effective method of wearing down the opposition. And now I take a leaf from woman's book and repeat, no one is deaf to applamse.