Did awkwardness exist in the old world? Would people back then even understand what it meant?

its vague , meaningless and excessivley shallow. Only our post modern society can facilitate being judgemental about something so inconsequential and trivial. You had to be mentally ill or eccentric to receive that sort of stigma back in the day

This, youth culture has infantilized society, now grown adults are expected to constantly be having "fun" and serious introvert types are seen as having some sort of mental defect

tfw literally a le wrong generation fag

just fucking kill me already, i want a reroll

youtube.com/watch?v=rZWLwz9_7o0

Fucking baby music everywhere nowadays

A certain English scientist was considered maximum assburger even by his contemporaries. I can't quite recall the name, but there are numerous anecdotes about him being an intensely shy man. His colleagues of the Royal Society laughed about how his main two responses to being approached were to scurry away silently or to fidget and stare at the person until they left.

>I want a reroll
don't we all

Probably Isaac Newton. Guy died a virgin. Never did anything fun in his life because he would spend the whole time thinking about how much less time he would have to study.

Sounds more like Henry Cavendish.

Newton was one of those more asshole-ish autistic types.

When you worked your ass off for food or just basic things we got today, all awkwardnes amounted to was 'honor' or 'shame'. People talked to strangers freely, people in industrial countries today are sad husks who feel 'awkward' before others.

The personal sphere and privac didn't really exist before modernity. Most people could not afford their own room, so people would shit, piss and undress in front of each other, so awkwardness in this sense wasn't a thing.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Cavendish

18th century chemist and physicist who discovered hydrogen amongst other brilliant scientist feats

>He conversed little, always dressed in an old-fashioned suit, and developed no known deep personal attachments outside his family

>He only communicated with his female servants by notes. By one account, Cavendish had a back staircase added to his house in order to avoid encountering his housekeeper because he was especially shy of women

>His only social outlet was the Royal Society Club, whose members dined together before weekly meetings. Cavendish seldom missed these meetings, and was profoundly respected by his contemporaries. However his shyness made those who "sought his views... speak as if into vacancy. If their remarks were...worthy, they might receive a mumbled reply, but more often than not they would hear a peeved squeak (his voice appears to have been high-pitched) and turn to find an actual vacancy and the sight of Cavendish fleeing to find a more peaceful corner"

>He also enjoyed collecting fine furniture exemplified by his purchase of a set of "ten inlaid satinwood chairs with matching cabriole legged sofa"

>scientist feats

scientific* sorry i'm high as a kite

Awkwardness has always existed. Much of the literary output of Jane Austen revolves around awkwardness about position in society.

In any society where politeness is a virtue, awkwardness abounds where people are discomfited by instances where the expected or desired outcome of an interaction is at odds with social etiquette.

I imagine blue collars, from ancient slaves to factory workers have always felt awkward exchanging Smalltalk with the estate/factory owner.

tfw born in the wrong generation

lol wtf

one of us

Wasn't Claudius known to act autistic, so much that Caligula kept him around just to make jokes about him.

source? I'm love to read up more on that

You're just retarded, and dont understand normies. Go read dale carnegie, thats all you need to know about socialization

What are you memeing about? Stigmatization based on behavior and personal traits was 10000x worse back in the day ya fool

Etiquette existed. What happened to those who didn't adjust to etiquette rules?

>personal traits was 10000x worse back in the day
what?

So many retard autist fantasies in this thread. No, there was no time when you could just be oh so smart and everyone would ignore your social ineptitude.

Awkwardness is based on understanding that other people judge you the same way you judge them. Then when you do something you shouldn't, and you realize they're noticing you, and they also notice that you notice, you get awkwardness. Awkwardness only depends on a sense of self and a sense of others.

>victorians

I doubt that, at least for agricultural societies. Go to some underdeveloped, rural society, and I don't mean trailer parks in America, more like small villages in Eastern Europe. They have terrible social skills. We even have jokes about how autistic some of these people are, in the jokes, they are always talking in extremely short sentences etc. I think it's safe to assume that pre-modern people had similar lifestyles and mindsets. Your social standing in rural societies like that is simply not based on how fun you are to be around, but on how much of a good worker you are, how strong you are, is your family respectable etc.

then why hasn't awkwardness been documented ANYWHERE before very modern times?

It was Cavendish my wife and I read a book about a month ago that basically gives this history of science but whoever wrote it included all this hilarious real life shit stranger than fiction about all the great scientists. Fuck i wish I remembered the name of this book.

Whenever you read about people being "peculiar" or "disruptive" or shit like that you can expect awkwardness.
Where the fuck are you getting this notion that because it is expressly recorded it didn't happen?
You don't think there were autistic fucks in 30AD?
That's just naive.

they lived in barrels

Is the difference between awkwardness and general social anxiety just the awareness factor? As someone with social anxiety it doesn't feel based on 'knowing the rules' but just a general feeling of discomfort and alienation

At Pompeii there is a text left behind by some beta Roman describing how he didn't need pussy because he could fuck boipussy instead.

Sounds like your typical Veeky Forums user desu

Where do you see the history of XXX the farmer that just farmed all his life and died without anyone noticing? He coulve been socially awkward for all we know

this hah

Sounds like Bill Bryson.

>Awkwardness only depends on a sense of self and a sense of others.

So yoga is the key to overcoming awkwardness?
>all is atman

BEADY
EADYB
ADYBE
DYBEA
YBEAD

Come on reroll!
>western expansion
Fuck it, load the wagon. Mexican whores and opium here I come. Hopefully syphilis will take me in my sleep.

U are retard man

no u

>Awkwardness has always existed. Much of the literary output of Jane Austen revolves around awkwardness about position in society.

This. As long as there have been etiquette, there has been awkwardness. Every culture has had etiquette.

bahahaha

I'm sure you can find records of obtuse people accidentally breaking social norms or spilling their spaghetti.

nope

Pretty sure even contemporaries joked about how outrageously stuck up they were famalam

Of course, My grandmother still talks of how funny it was that there was an autist from her village who would walk around barefoot as he ate nothing but onions and drank metho

Of fucking course.

It's fascinating reading older things for that actually. It's such a different perspective on socially odd people as they didn't have the same names for things.

Besides cavendish, do you have any examples? I'm curious.

napoleon was pretty awkward though most of it was probably on purpose

Got any details?

You are an idiot. I doubt you have even read more than three texts from the early modern period or earlier cover-to-cover. Just off the top of my head, Malvolio from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night is an example of a maladjusted awkward virgin. Please get OFF the internet and pick up a book.

What the heck are you talking about, social norms used to be way stricter than they are now. Just being a bit 'alternative' would get you branded as a witch, and a few centuries later locked up in an insane asylum.

Now people still have the tendency to label everything mentally ill that doesn't fit their views, but it used to be way worse trust me.

Well, obviously you've never been to East Europe.

awkwardness is not mental illness

found the virgin