An Interesting Experiment

[Fiddle-Faddle]

Why is it not okay for people to enjoy music only when it is on their schedule yet the participants in the experiment expect people to conform to their schedule (Friday morning rush hour)?

How are you defining "enjoy?" It seems to me that people could have spared 5-10 seconds to glance at and listen to an extraordinary musician. The number of people who didn't even glance his way or slow down their stride DOES shock me.

Are people in such a hurry that a few seconds cannot be spared for something like one of the best violinists of the century?

[Tim-n-VA]

I guess what bothers me about the whole thing is the idea that someone thinks they have the right to decide what someone else should do, even for a few seconds.

When I used DC public transit (and occasionally still do), I use that time to read. Ironically, I taught myself to read music while reading books on DC area transit.

I can see, and mostly agree, that life would probably have been better in some sense if everyone who walked by had experienced what those few people who stopped experienced. At the same time I like them having the freedom to walk by without even glancing at the guy. And, I'm not sure that everyone, or even most, would have experienced the same thing if they had stopped.

I know that if I'd been there I would have walked right on by. If there had been someone playing a mandolin, at almost any skill level, I would have stopped.

[tarnalberry]

I guess what bothers me about the whole thing is the idea that someone thinks they have the right to decide what someone else should do, even for a few seconds.

When I used DC public transit (and occasionally still do), I use that time to read. Ironically, I taught myself to read music while reading books on DC area transit.

I can see, and mostly agree, that life would probably have been better in some sense if everyone who walked by had experienced what those few people who stopped experienced. At the same time I like them having the freedom to walk by without even glancing at the guy. And, I'm not sure that everyone, or even most, would have experienced the same thing if they had stopped.

I know that if I'd been there I would have walked right on by. If there had been someone playing a mandolin, at almost any skill level, I would have stopped.

We're arguing two different things - and it's a crucial point. This isn't a black or white, all or nothing issue. I certainly don't mean to say that you, Tim, definitely should have stopped had you been there. And the point certainly isn't that everyone would have experienced the same thing - they absolutely would have experienced different things. But as almost no one paid attention, almost no one experienced anything. (Note how many people didn't even remember that there was anyone there.)

It's not the individual instances that - again, in my opinion, and the article doesn't, in my opinion, sufficiently address this - are the issue, but the mindset that we can go around in general, in life, not paying attention to anything outside our world. Then you'll miss the first flower of spring. The minute the clouds part on a rainy day for the sunlight to slash through. The child playing in the park. The random santa's hat with the silver top bit left on the side of the road (I spotted that one three weeks ago).

[Tim-n-VA]

I agree. I think the key issues we are in sync on. The format of internet messaging sometimes leads to digression based on minor sematics that would quickly be smoothed over if talking face-to-face.

[Felidae]

I liked that article and the music with it. For a very simple point, sometimes we need to just stop and take in our surroundings and you never know what we may find in that moment.