Ostracized

You ever get the feeling that people are intentionally not talking to you? Maybe it's just me being alone over here on the east coast.

Maybe.

Anyway, on to airplanes. I understand that there are certain reasons that specific things need to happen on airplanes. Like a seatbelt, for instance. If you've ever seen the first season of Lost, there was this great scene shown over and over of a plane crash, and you could really tell who was wearing a seatbelt and who wasn't.
I would even go so far as to understand why you have your tray tables and seatbacks locked and in their upright positions. No one wants to eat a face full of upholstery or Formica in the event of an ugly landing. These things are very unlikely to happen, but it makes sense that we do them if you really strain your brain.

Then there are those other commands that you have no choice but to obey because they're all caveated with FAA REGULATIONS REQUIRE, like we all carry around a copy of the aforementioned to verify whether they're pulling our leg or not, and even if they're completely making it up, those same regs say you have to obey the "flight attendants" commands, regardless of sanity. And what ever happened to stewards/esses? The reality of the situation is that soda and a snack is the primary reason that planes are staffed. Oh sure, you hear the smartly modified announcements: "Flight attendants primary functions are to ensure your safety", like they're whipping out an Allen wrench to tighten up the rivets along the superstructure; like even one percent of these attendants are flight qualified in the event that both captain and co-pilot were incapacitated; like one of these four or so underpaid attendants is going to plunge into a carotid artery in case of a rupture.

The whole thing is a placebo. It's the illusion of some critical element that really isn't doing anything.

The pre-flight safety brief? Placebo. If you don't know how to buckle the safety belt that's God's way of thinning the herd.

In the event of a water landing your seat cushion... Placebo: they won't do anything because an airplane has fallen from out of the sky where it was previously cruising along at 500 miles per house at 40,000 feet and it just collided with the water, which resulted in a rather sudden stop.

Oxygen masks will drop from the over head; the bags may not inflate but you will still receive oxygen... placebo, and not necessarily true; unbeknownst to most people, these non-pressurized supplemental systems don't have enough pressure to provide any oxygen to your bloodstream above about 28,000 feet. Don't believe me? Check out this ABC News article. It's not pretty: most people blackout over 15000 feet altitude. If there is pressure loss at 39K feet, you have about 9 seconds to don your mask before you black out... which you will still do even if you get it on in time, because it'll take the pilot about 90 seconds to get you below 28 thousand feet where your safety cones will start giving you the oxygen you need. Is it important to get the mask on? Yes... will it save your life? Maybe; but it's still a placebo.

So what's up with these other not so sensible requirements? Say for instance you want to have your window shade closed during landing because the sun is cooking you. Nope, sorry: FAA REGULATIONS REQUIRE... Why? What possible impact will a closed window shade have on the pilot (unless of course it's his window shade.)? How about the reg that says you can't have headphones on, even if they're not plugged into anything? And really, what's wrong with an electronic device that doesn't transmit, like say an MP3 player? FAA REGULATIONS REQUIRE...
I guess it could be that I'm just overly sensitive because I travel a lot. Maybe.