Muckraking in the Twenty-First Century

If one were to call to mind the story Gene Weingarten, of the Washington Post Magazine, wrote regarding the indifference of subway patrons, he or she might not instantly compare him to Ida Tarbell or Upton Sinclair; but at a closer examination, Weingarten is revealing truths and short comings  of humanity just as they did. Admittedly, indifference of passer-byes to street performers does not do such ostensibly irreparable harm to society as say, dangerous and unsanitary factory conditions, but still, it does reveal a facet of society which may be in need of an examination.

Has society become so numb to anything but the destination, that there's no time to stop to enjoy the journey? Would it really take that long to stop, and listen to a song, an expression of one's soul, a look into a fellow man's (or woman's) mind? Could that two minutes really make a difference in the grand scheme of things, beside preventing you from being the by a car that you might have been hit by had you been two minutes ahead of yourself? 

Perhaps this speaks more to the idea of human perception. While Weingarten persuaded a world class musician, Joshua Bell, to perform on the street for his experiment into public norms, only a small fraction stopped to make a donation, or at least even take a listen. This seems a bit insane, since as a professional musician, patrons pay a large sum to listen to him, but when able to listen for free, they essentially ignored his presence. I can only relate this to the idea of the generic brand and name brand; even though the less expensive brand may be of the same quality, many will go for the name brand because it feels more acceptable. Or perhaps, they ignored him because of the setting. Who would expect to find a man of his talent playing incognito in the street? This might even further bring one to ponder whether Bell is only held in such high esteem because he performs in such affluent surroundings. (Absolutely no offense should be taken toward Bell's talent! Any famous musician X could be inserted into this scenario.) Could it be that people only gave him a chance, or even the time of day, because they were told he was an important musician who could only be enjoyed under the lights of a theatre, and thus paid $100 plus for a ticket to see him? What if society gave every performer, those on the street included, the same benefit of the doubt as they do an established musician? Perhaps new and talented musicians would be discovered and brought to fame, rather than thrown money at in the street while the world hastily runs to its next meeting.

Thus, the human condition of perception is a concept we must each individually examine. We must not feed into the haste and status quo of society; we must live for ourselves, and if that means stopping to watch a man play a harmonica on the street instead of stopping for coffee then so be it. And yes, there is not much we can do to change our innate beliefs, but it might be worthwhile to work at changing the perception that only worth while art can be viewed or listened in a purchased setting. Here's an idea, stop and look at some graffiti next time you see some; look at the blend of colors, the message it's trying to convey. You may be surprised by what you see. 

On a larger scale, perhaps perception should be geared toward a more laid back, open minded lifestyle, where we have the time to stop and glance at he world around us, the fruits of life, not rush past them because we have more important, might I add, more boring, things to do.