A striking Gurdjieff observation on basic human nature

[Updated below]

I can't get out of my mind Gurdjieff's striking (though obvious though no less striking for being obvious) statement that humans just want to *astonish* other humans.

"I've astonished you with my entrance into this room."

"My story I am telling is astonishing you."

"I've broken this record and now you are astonished at my accomplishment."

"Though I'm a nobody with no worldly attainments I still astonish you with my aura which angers you."

What happens when you lose the motivation to astonish your fellow human beings? You become anathema. You become an astonishing buzz kill in all environments. You don't want to astonish anybody, and hence the illusion and vanity of it is seen through and the game is over. You buzz kill. You must leave!

And notice that even if you have done something truly astonishing your fellow human beings will react as if you havn't done anything afterall. Only the really innocent ones will be impressed. Otherwise they think: "So you are standing at that podium with all those microphones speaking to the world of your discovery of intrinsic qualities of sunlight enabling man to draw infinite energy from the sun...wow. Somebody was going to discover that. So you are a geek that wasted your life thinking about such things. Allow me to astonish you with the fact that I've just returned from a journey to an ancient forest with a beautiful woman where we discovered a stone chapel where a wise man told us secrets you will never know. I've astonished you."

Update: the Word of God teaches contentment as an answer to the above. When you are content you don't feel a need to impress. Of course the world gets angry when they see contentment and considers the content person to be mentally deficient...