I find that, most often, a person's reflex action to sudden "drama" is produced by the proverbial gut. Predicting the reaction is not possible.
I disagree. There are still plenty of patterns and tendencies. Some people cry, some people become disdainful, some people run, some people attack blindly - and a person's not likely to spontaneously change their usual responses. Such changes are usually gradual, or provoked by an obvious cause.
Even learning much from an observation of gut-reflex is not really practical, because if something even remotely similar happens to "one," "one" discovers that "ones" own proverbial gut is made up of varying quantities of differing "stuff."
Depends what "one" is trying to learn. I, for one, (
) find it fascinating to observe people in conflict, not because I'm trying to predict my own response, but because I want to predict and affect others' responses.
Can't learn, except by doing. Sorry, no shortcuts to guts!
Agreed - though I actually know one person who vehemently argues the opposite, and I find it fascinating to watch, because while his advice rarely helps those around him, it works extremely well for him personally. By watching others instead of making his own mistakes, he managed to avoid a lot of financial and future-planning blunders, and became successful faster than most.
Although, I can see how certain types of "drama" can be entertaining, until you become bored with watching.
I only find it boring once it's become predictable - hence why the forums were more interesting when I first joined. There was more of a sense of mission, more people trying for common ground, and the momentum of finally discovering what was "wrong" with you all along and finding others like you. I'm still idealistic, so I revise my visions when they're proven false instead of abandoning them.