(no subject)
Sir Ian Blair, the London Metropolitan Police Commissioner, said last Monday that London is safe enough to leave your doors unlocked. As a novelty for me, I left my door unlocked last night as I slept. I awoke this morning to someone knocking at my doors at 8:30 am. I thought no answering for you, sleep time is now. The knocking continued a few times, and then I heard the door open. This got me out of bed, as you can imagine. I heard a call from the front room: "Hello?" "Um, hi?" I call back. "I'm here to fix the hallway lights?" Oh! The electrician! How could I forget! I specifically said in the message I left him, "you can come right on in." Oh well, just a little scare.
I am curious about the virtue of unlocked doors. Is it, to say it in a Michael Moore-ist fashion, a product of our culture of fear? Is it a statement that my attachment to my possessions inside is greater than my trust of humanity outside? Is it the idea that some burglars, if the front door is locked, will just move on? Are there people who walk around and try to open every door and no one cares, or are there people who can intuitively see a door is unlocked? Is the threat not to my stuff, but to my person, like in that one Ani song? Will I come home and find some strange man in my apartment who wants to kill and/or rape me? Or will it just have been some teenagers stealing my beer? Or is it just two fucking seconds out of your days every time you go through the door, why the hell would you leave it unlocked?
I am curious about the virtue of unlocked doors. Is it, to say it in a Michael Moore-ist fashion, a product of our culture of fear? Is it a statement that my attachment to my possessions inside is greater than my trust of humanity outside? Is it the idea that some burglars, if the front door is locked, will just move on? Are there people who walk around and try to open every door and no one cares, or are there people who can intuitively see a door is unlocked? Is the threat not to my stuff, but to my person, like in that one Ani song? Will I come home and find some strange man in my apartment who wants to kill and/or rape me? Or will it just have been some teenagers stealing my beer? Or is it just two fucking seconds out of your days every time you go through the door, why the hell would you leave it unlocked?