Couldn't Give a...

The general opinion about Americans the world over (aside from we are fat, have no taste and are ruining the world) is that we are by and large a cheery, friendly, upbeat people.

Sure, occasionally back in the Midwest (and even in "we too cool to care" big city) people smile and strike up conversations with strangers, something that is a sure sign of crazy in many other countries.

I maintain however that we are not the grinning-happy-go-lucky masses that we to a certain extent even believe ourselves to be. We are in fact a country full of people who don't increasingly don't want to be bothered and couldn't give a shit. Myself very much included.
The anonymous nature of most of our interactions plays a huge part in this, providing us with all the safety of a padded suit and a ski mask to be bigger and bigger jerks.

A few recent examples:

When I phoned the corporate headquarters of an un-named company yesterday to inquire about using an image in an article, I was hung up on as soon as I said the name of the magazine. Naturally I called back, and the following exchange took place:

Me: "Hi I just called, I think we got disconnected."
Woman in charge of all calls coming into a major company: "No we didn't, I hung up on you."
Me: " Why would you do that?"
Woman: “Because you keep calling here and I'm sick of it.”
Me: "I have never called before."
Woman: "Well somebody keeps calling about subscriptions."
Me: "I'm an editor and I'm calling about using a photo in an article in our magazine, that's why I asked to speak to your press department."
Woman: "Oh, oops."

Yeah, oops. She just wanted to be left the f*ck alone, she didn't want to have to talk to me and figure out who I was or what I wanted.

Similarly, the woman last year who wished me dead, simply because it would make her job a little bit easier and she could get back to reading blogs or playing solitaire.

Or good ol' Spirit airlines, whose countless "customer service" representatives gave increasingly less and less of a shit when our bag full of Christmas gifts was lost stolen this past Christmas. (It is nearly four months later and they still don’t give a shit by the way nor have we received any money for our stolen gifts)

And then of course there’s me. I seem to be becoming a grumpy old woman well before my time.

Perhaps it’s because I’m new, or perhaps it’s a little bit of not shit giving on the part of receptionists, but a number of random calls get transfer to me daily. And whether it’s a high school or college student with a journalism project, a reader who can’t find a camera review from six months ago, someone writing a book about a photographer we covered in the 1970’s, or an advertiser, when I pick up the phone, the same thought is in the back of my head: “why can’t you just leave me alone!” I do my best to be helpful and answer questions, but really at the heart of it all I don’t think American’s, or perhaps humans really want much to do with each other.