E The Holistic View 141
Embarrassment
Energy low; direction sharp, focus internal.
Almost all grand embarrassment is preceded by secretiveness.
This is not the momentary kind that comes from farting in public.
Grand embarrassment can arise from displaced expectations all
the way up to discovery of the family skeletons.
Embarrassed people typically do not know what to do with this
sudden, unexpected flow of energy. They know what caused the
embarrassment and sharply direct their attention on it. They don’t
know where to put all of the energy it provoked, though, so it often
comes boomeranging back at them. Whether embarrassment
becomes anger, excitement, joy, or confusion, all are related to how
the person deals with directing the energy and whether the focus
becomes internal or external. This will be largely culture-dependant.
Direction in embarrassment is unilateral. All arrows are lined
with the course of action the person decides to take to escape the
cause, even though displaced expectation makes the person seem
distracted for a moment. An average American called to speak in
front of a crowd will begin to use this direction of energy to create
barriers and use adaptors to comfort himself. This same person
called a liar in public may have an extremely different, secondary
reaction: one that includes discrediting the accuser. The course of
action depends upon whether this highly directed energy is focused
internally or externally.
Where a person focuses energy in embarrassment is largely cul-
tural. When I say culture, I mean from microculture through super-
culture. In May 1991, Queen Elizabeth paid a visit to the Marshall