Are Americans Getting Angrier?

ARE AMERICANS GETTING ANGRIER?

PBS NewsHour
Nov 2 2011

While shooting at the end of day recently at Zuccotti Park, I was
heckled twice while “re-asking” several questions. That is, with only
one camera, it’s impossible to create a dialogue between interviewer
and interviewee unless the camera swings back and forth. Given that
the sun had already set, we had to light each person and thus re-set
to shoot me asking, on camera, the questions I’d just asked off-camera.

That’s what appeared to occasion the heckling.

“Very spontaneous!” yelled one passerby with whom I thought I’d just
had a pleasant exchange, explaining that we were from PBS. “Just what
the media are like!” (or words to that effect).

Minutes later came another: “Could you be any more SCRIPTED???!!!!”

“Substantially,” I replied.

What to make of it?

I guess, with suit and tie, I looked to come from a somewhat loftier
economic percentile than most denizens of the park though not,
I wouldn’t have thought, the top one.

Not having been born yesterday, or even last month, I do understand
that general resentment of the media is nothing new: Plutarch claims
that the Armenian emperor Tigranes really did kill the messenger who
told him of the Roman general Lucullus’ advance. Lopped off his head.

And surely, general resentment fuels Occupy Wall Street, as it does
Tea Party rallies and perhaps rallies in general. But mostly, the vibe
at Zuccotti Park is hospitable, welcoming, so it came as a surprise,
particularly since I myself was friendly, I thought.

So I wonder: Is spontaneity becoming an end in itself? Are the media
becoming more reviled? Are Americans getting even angrier? The Other
99 more frustrated? Or — and I’ll leave it here — maybe I shouldn’t
read too much into an isolated pair of reactions on the sidewalks of
New York.

Photo: Tigranes and four vassal Kings. By Fusso, 19th century. Via
a Creative Commons license.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress