I met an amazing author the other night, actually a fiddler at a jam session where I was playing mandolin, who with his clear thinking has singlehandedly identified and defined a whole new branch of social science! It was amazing to talk to him, because in order to even talk about this new branch, one needs a new lingo, because, frankly, it’s never been so closely observed and discussed before. Until now, it’s been entirely overlooked by the academics.
“Afriats” are “Acquaintences of Forced Regular Interaction”. These are people whom you would not ordinarily choose to be in your life, but they are in your lifle on a regular basis, and you have to deal with them. They’re not necessarily your friends, they’re not necessarily your relatives, they’re not necessarily even your enemies. But they’re buzzing around the perifery of your life, and if you don’t recognize deal with their effects on you, they can wreak a whole lotta havoc on your life.
Once we as a society have these new tools in our hands, just imagine – we could wipe out road rage, school rage, employee rage, postal rage…. plus gain more control over our own lives.
There are 7 types of interactions:
- Unafriated
- Irrelevants
- Effectuals
- Single Contact Influentuals
- Occasionals
- Friends
- Enemies
Then there members of one category who attempt to change categories against our will, and all the upset that can cause.
Obviously, this is a very large new field, and I’m not quite doing it justice. For a much better understanding, you really want to read the book!
Best wishes, to all my friends & afriats!
