Yes, I totally agree, the hobbits are really dependant only on themselves, anything "un-hobbitlike" they disregard, pretend its not real, and just go on living. They don't show much care for anything that they don't know about, and they want to hear things they already know about, anything else they just basically ignore. Which as Varda pointed out some hints of foreshadowing of the troubles to come in the shire, maybe if the hobbits paid attention and showed some care for the "strange" events that went on during this chapter they could have prevented the scouring of the shire. Grant it The Shire was saved in the end, by what the hobbits would refer to Frodo, Sam..etc as "strange," but Saruman corrupting The Shire could have been prevented if the hobbits had paid more attention to the events at Bilbo's party. Instead they just took their presents and cracked jokes about how "weird" Bilbo was, and about how he didn't act hobbitlike.
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