THE EVIL ART OF "BLANK FACE" for

SOCIAL ENGINEERING PURPOSES

First time I saw what I call "blank facing" somebody is when I was at a
relatives wedding in west Michigan. It was my mom's step-sister or halfsister (ie my grandpa remarried and had three children with a second
wife). This was after years of "estrangement" between my grandpa and
my mom & most of her sisters (all daughters from the 1st marriage) . We
were invited as a family to the wedding because, apparently, the kids
from the 2nd marriage still cherished a relationship with us as a family
even if our grandfather didn't care for us. After the wedding, a line
formed to greet the bride & her family (ie my grandfather & 2nd wife et
al) and I myself decided not to go thru the line, but my mom did. And I
watched from a short distance away as she passed by my grandfather
(ie her father) and he "blank faced" her saying, "AND WHO ARE YOU?"
My mom was apparently prepared for some sort of cruel nonsense such
as this and responded, "I'M YOUR DAUGHTER". Other people who were
not so aware of the history of our family and the so-called
"estrangement" between my mom & most of her sisters and my
grandfather were somewhat shocked judging by the looks on some of
their faces. Here was my mom's dad PRETENDING he didn't recognize or
know his own daughter. It was quite the moment.
And since that time I've experienced something similar in southern
California where I might go to a store, or an event, or even a church and
people I've seen many times, even at my doctor's office where a certain
receptionist also does this, act as if they've never seen me before. One
of my doctor's receptionists makes a point of asking my for all my data,
even sometimes saying "Have you been here before?"
The apparent purpose of this is to try to marginalize or alienate or
conduct social engineering in a way intended to convert us from a good
person with a history of good citizenship, regular church attendance,
even a college graduate or more, in to a legalistic relationship in which
we are "just another number".
Police sometimes do this as well by reducing us to our driver's license
identification number, reminding us that we are mere citizens expected
to comply with laws, regardless of "who" we are. Sometimes they do it
intentionally, knowing you are a new person in town and they want to
1

create a legalistic relationship rather than respect you for any

accomplishments you've had somewhere else (ie just graduated with
honors from college and now you're returning to your hometown, and
they want to make sure you don't get "too big for your britches' so they
treat you legalistically...maybe writing you up for jay-walking when
ordinarily they wouldn't bother. In other words, they have an agenda,
and selective enforcement of laws is used for discriminatory purposes
to socially engineer .
And it's difficult to work around this sort of mistreatment. Security
guards can do it. Receptionists can do it. Clerks can do it. Church
greeters or deacons can do it. They decide who they want to "recognize"
or not. In some cases you might make some progress by complaining to
their superior. I suppose I could talk to my doctor (who seems to like &
respect me) about how I feel alienated by one of her receptionists who
perpetually treats me as if she's never seen me before. And perhaps the
doctor can do something. Or perhaps I can talk to the pastor at the
church about feeling mistreated by a particular deacon. But it's also a
difficult thing for these superiors to address without crossing certain
boundaries in some cases.
This kind of passive-aggressive behavior (often by low-level persons,
but not always) is what I call "blank-face" social engineering. There's a
pizza place that I used to go to periodically near my parents house
(where my family has a lot of positive "history" in the community going
back to 1936) to get a quick slice of pizza for a $1.25. It's owned &
operated by a husband & wife from Vietnam or Philippines. The wife
used to be really friendly but she doesn't always work at the counter.
The husband also used to be fairly nice and friendly but recently I got
the blank-face treatment from him as well. He acted as if he had never
seen me before, ...no smile, no normal friendliness. I left feeling a bit
hurt. Maybe he wanted a tip but there was no tip jar, and it wasn't a sitdown type of place. Whatever the case may be, it caused me to resume
my reflection on "blank face" behavior.
I still haven't found a fool-proof modus operandi (m.o.) to work around
this sort of social engineering, other than to sometimes write letters,
keep blogging about some of these situations. avoid certain people
when possible etc, and MOSTLY pray about it. It also made me realize
how evil people can actually create criminals to a certain extent by not
treating people according to their "station in life", or by simply not
treating people with appropriate dignity and respect whatever their
2

station in life may or may not be. If we don't treat people with a certain
amount of normal courtesy, kindness, decency and also "facial
recognition" (after a certain amount of time of seeing the same person)
we break down communities and individuals to nothing more than a
bundle of atoms & molecules & an identification number, and sometimes
it is to such an extent that they lose their humanity. God will hold us
responsible for degrading people to such an extent. It's the opposite of
good citizenship.
And it can also be done as a form of "reverse discrimination" . I think
maybe I feel it more in southern California because as a "white"
American with some positive history in this area (as well as positive
accomplishments outside of this area) the fact is that "minorities" are
actually the majority in the greater L.A. area, and they can use blankface treatment to their advantage and to some of our disadvantage. I
guess you have to keep searching for people who you can deem true
friends. My only problem is that I grew up elsewhere and so I don't have
some of those long-term relationships that other people have here in
southern California. But I've been here long enough as a good citizen
and church attendee that I should expect and require to be treated with
some familiarity rather than as a "stranger" especially at places where
I've been attending for quite some time now.
So that's my THOUGHT 4 the DAY.
-VK-

--

" If u declare with your mouth,

Jesus is Lord, & believe in your heart
that God raised Him from the dead,
u will be saved."
Romans 10.9
3