To get the tone of a neighborhood, all you have to do is listen to its noises. It's amazing what you can learn as you walk through a place, with your ears attuned to what noises people make. For it is in this unguarded moments that people express their true opinions.
This was brought home to me as I walked in Manhattan, and started paying attention to the conversations of random persons walking by. For example, in the upcoming presidential elections here, people are all over the place as to what they believe is important.
It seems that everybody has filtered whatever the politicians are saying, through their own particular problems, and have come up with bizarre or plausible points of views to support their particular candidates. And the worst part is -- that if you engage any of these people in conversation, they get too passionate defending their particular brand of politics, and if you don't watch out, you're involved in a huge fight.
The funny thing is, that from the way these people speak, they care less about the bigger picture than what they think this or that particular politician can do for them. And of course, depending on the neighborhood you happen to be in, the topic of importance changes: sometimes in a small way, sometimes in a big way, but it changes.
It's no use telling this or that person to look beyond their own narrow interests, as they will call you biased and ignorant, and close their minds to further arguments. And so it goes for politics, good luck to all the politicians, they are going to need it, for we the people are sure fickle.
