Should I Stay or Should I go?

A few years ago, a cousin shared this intriguing article about an experiment in a New York subway station:

Below is a link to a fascinating article based on a social experiment performed by the Washington Post.

Here's the scenario: have one of the world's most acclaimed violinists give a 44-minute solo concert on a Stradivarius, playing some of the most beautiful music ever written – BUT, have him dressed casually, in a rush-hour Washington DC subway station, with an open violin case, asking for dollars.

Before you read the article, think about these questions:

- Of the 1,000-odd people who walked by, how many noticed him at all?
- How many stopped to watch and listen, and for how long?
- Did a crowd form at any point?
- How many people recognized who he was?
- How much money did he have in his violin case at the end of his performance?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html

My response:

 

Very intriguing experiment.  For the record, I hadn't heard of the violinist's name before, and if he knocked on the door for a morning coffee, I wouldn't recognize him.  If I had been walking through the metro that morning and had had someone with me, I think I would have at least paused and said something like, "Damn, that guy's too good to be playing down here."  However, my frontal lobes would have been screaming, "Reach your destination, Allen!"  And off I would have gone!

 

I found these two parts of the article to be most telling:

 

We're busy. Americans have been busy, as a people, since at least 1831, when a young French sociologist named Alexis de Tocqueville visited the States and found himself impressed, bemused and slightly dismayed at the degree to which people were driven, to the exclusion of everything else, by hard work and the accumulation of wealth.

 

If we can't take the time out of our lives to stay a moment and listen to one of the best musicians on Earth play some of the best music ever written; if the surge of modern life so overpowers us that we are deaf and blind to something like that -- then what else are we missing?

 

Also, the passage about kids, of all shapes, sizes, backgrounds and colors wanting to listen or slow down a bit also confirms of a lot of what's mentioned over and over again in every self-help book:  Children are naturally curious, and it's a sign of intelligence.  Only as they age do they learn that adults around them do their earnest to stifle that creative spark.  Pretty sad.

 

Now, if that had been in a Bronx metro station and 50 Cent (not in disguise) had been rapping in the corner, droves of people wearing huge gold chains would have been dancing.  Or if it had been in Nashville and Charlie Daniels had been working that violin to The Devil Went Down to Georgia, cowboy boots would have been stomping the floor and old confederate flags would have been unfurled.  People are funny in that way.  Celebrity appeals.