Primitive New York

The Greatest City on Earth

 

Boom! The world knows it as, “the City that Never Sleeps” or the “Big Apple”. The inhabitants of New York City are very intriguing. The people of this town have a way of being exclusive to the rest of the world. It’s hilarious how the most civilized city in the world could also be the most primitive.

It began when my colleague Grace and I visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art, located in Manhattan, New York and we witnessed how a majority of the people of this extremely “dense” city behaved. Although, it is full of diversity, it’s interesting to know that the city of New York has a way of putting its residents into an order, which makes everyone behave in the same manner.

For example, in the museum we had a chance to be amongst some of New York’s elite and most sophisticated. The art that was on display was elementary and so were the people. This was a sight to be seen!  Art critiques discussed the “masterpieces”, as if they were the next big thing to change the life and evolution of man. Primitive art was astonishing to these people. New York’s elite respected and critiqued art performed by an elephant. Seriously, an elephant made art and it consisted of canvases with splashes of paint.

Soon after, we left and began walking to the train station and we witnessed a street vendor playing with his nose and scratching himself, right before he began serving someone. We were disgusted! This man had no regard for any of his customer’s else’s health; he didn’t have any hand sanitizer or anything else that could be used to clean your hands. The most baffling aspect about this event was that each vendor along our walk to the subway all had the same philosophy, yet the consumers had no resentment towards any of the vendors that we saw. This seemed to be a common practice amongst New Yorkers.

The next aspect of the New York City way of life that we witnessed was in the subway waiting area and this was the most astonishing.  Everyone was in a rush to get on the train, once the train arrived. It was as if the train was something that the entire city worshipped. People pushed, shoved and cursed in order to get a space on it; only half of the riders were able to be seated, while the rest had to stand up and be assembled in the cars like puzzles. It did not matter if you’re a child or old woman; proper etiquette was strongly not appreciated or practiced. Every man was for himself. The weirdest part of the whole scenario was that a majority of the people that rode the train looked as if they were killing time. These people worshipped the train, yet it was filthy. There was graffiti everywhere. The ride on the subway was different from any other train we have had a chance to ride; unlike Europe or Japan, New York had no scenic views or cleanliness. There were no mountains, country views, etc. Instead, there was an infestation of rats and a dark depressing view of reality, throughout the subway system.

New York will always be New York. There is no other city that could get away with so many illusions like New York. It only seems sophisticated, but in actuality it is very primitive.