Concert Videography and the Golden Rule

Last night as I was watching the Punch Brothers show in Birmingham, I suddenly became aware of this little white-haired lady sitting on the front row holding up an iPhone filming the whole thing.  The incongruity of that stunned me for a moment, and then it made me irritated.  There had been, of course, the requisite announcement at the beginning of the performance telling people not to take pictures or record the show in any way.  Now here was this person blatantly sitting there recording away in front of God and country.  Is this where all those videos on YouTube come from?  Somebody's little old Mawmaw?

I don't know why people do that.  I don't know why they just assume it's "okay" unless somebody makes them stop.  It's not.

First of all, I think it's a distraction to the performers if they can see it, and unless that was Thile's sweet little grandma filming her own true bebe up there, they could see her and knew somebody was just as disrespectful to them as could be.  I know as performers they probably develop a thick skin to this sort of thing, but really, does anybody ever get over being shown disrespect?  I am a classroom teacher.  Every day, I stand before an "audience" and deal with varying forms of attention and inattention, respect and disrespect, and I can tell you that even though some of the bad is expected, it never quite gets "okay."

Second, it's a symptom of a larger whole in society to me.  If you're willing to ignore somebody's wishes not to record them in a concert because they've asked you not to but you want to do something differently, what else are you willing to railroad over?  It's a form of selfishness.  It seems we all want what we want when we want it, and we don't really care what it costs the other person, whether it is a photograph taken in the Sistine Chapel or Westminster Abbey (both places they ask you not to photograph, but MY GOD, watch the tourists "sneak" pictures), a "live" film to bootleg on YouTube or something larger, something with more sinister.  It occurred to me as I was thinking about that lady again this morning that it all springs from the same dark root, so maybe we shouldn't treat any of it lightly.

The Golden Rule exists in almost every ethical, moral, and religious system in the world for a reason.  It is stated slightly differently, but it is that bedrock principal for a reason.  Somehow, though, it seems as if we have gotten away from it, started looking down on it as a form of weakness or gullibility.  We've all taken our iPhones out of our pockets and started filming away when the mood strikes us forgetting that this behavior means that there will come a time when that little lens will be turned on us....and we might not like it so much then.

We need to get back to a place where we don't do things simply because somebody asked us not to do them.  Their wishes need to be reason enough.  There should be no need for bulletproof glass, security guards with truncheons, and searches before you go in.  Do to them what you want done to you.  That way, when you have your own moment of weakness or pain and you find yourself in need, you can reach out in confidence or close your door in privacy.  I think this is the world we'd all rather live in.