View Single Post
  #8  
Old 07-30-2008, 03:21 PM
Skyway Scott
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default

He is being sarcastic about the futility of this forum. (oops, took longer than 10 minutes to post)

Steve, looking forward to getting your profile.
BTW Steve, I brought up those questions hoping for insight, not trying to be confrontational.

This is a true story that I hope serves as an analogy about being "acceptable". I remember going to a pro beach volleyball tourney about 15 years ago out at TI. It was the finals. During the points the crowd was dead quiet. At the end of a point, the crowd cheered. There were at least 500 people viewing it. Again to stress, during points it was silent on the crowd's behalf.

This one guy then comes on scene with a radio. He sits down right in front of some bleachers (ten feet from the court), puts the radio down in the sand, then turns it on full blast, blaring very loud music.
At first people were in shock. "Did that guy really just do that?" is obviously what everyone was thinking, as all turned and whispered to their friends.
Nearly every single person there was annoyed and knew this wasn't cool. It was obvious. Thing is though, not one person said or did a damn thing. They (including me) just looked around and prayed someone else would ask him to turn it off. Not one person did, not even the referee.

The more time passed, the more people became annoyed. BUT, the more time passed, the harder (it seemed) to become to ask him to stop. I think people started doubting themselves about whether this was (un)acceptable and doubting/worrying about what would happen if they confronted him.
I learned something that day. If no one takes action, nothing happens.
The story continues, however.

When new people arrived on scene, they assume the blaring radio has been acknowledged as acceptable. (It IS on, and blaring.. and nothing is being done to stop it). You guessed the progression (if you were thinking ahead). Ten minutes later, another guy showed up and jammed his radio too. Then after about a half hour, two more guys actually had radios blaring.

The crowd as a whole, btw, were still beyond annoyed with the situation. They didn't just get use to it. But, since no one stopped the first guy, stopping 4 seemed 4 times as difficult and the crowd just put up with it.
That was a very interesting day for me. In a nutshell, 4 guys severely limited the enjoyment of 500 others AND no doubt, affected the level of play of the pros. Yet, no one stood up (not even the referee) and said something.

Anyway, you either get or you don't.

I think you did the right thing on here by posting (w/o a name) and calling out for help from those that might be concerned, Steve.

I was only trying to figure out what to do next, because I am curious how to stop someone who could not care less, without the law or similar backing you up.
Reply With Quote