Downtown Providence:
The tall building that houses my bank on the ground floor is one that you can actually walk through from one end to the other, at least during normal business hours. Cross the narrow side street, however...
This row of buildings has a couple of banks. The largest of these buildings you simply can't enter without security keying you in. That's not how it was a few years ago. Also you can't walk through any of the alleys because they're all fenced off with iron.
Do things always get more restrictive over time? It often seems that way.
2 comments:
I don't think this is the way society is supposed to be but it's something we've noticed too, for instance our clinic door used to just open but no longer. You have to tell a hidden speaker why you're there before they'll buzz the door open. We've also noticed phone answering systems that have no option for leaving a message - you must call back.
Things were different years ago when people left their car doors unlocked and their houses too. It does appear that things have grown more restrictive over time - it's just that it all happens faster now. Remember how quickly they shut down access to airport passenger areas? It became completely different in a week. The White House is triply fenced and jersey barriered too. It's a sad situation.
Having to state your reasons for visiting to an unseen speaker before you're allowed to enter sounds like something you'd be subjected to while visiting the isolated mansion of a security-conscious celeb. When all this happens at a place that's supposed to provide medical assistance for anyone who needs it things are a little off. As for the answering systems that don't allow you to leave messages, that's one of an alarming number of instances where the original purpose for something is quietly done away with.
We seem to have become a more low-trust society over time. The truth is that as much as politicians talk about community, they're quite happy to see us treat each other as hostile strangers. Some of these fencings off and lockings down are justified by terror attacks, but when there are no terror attacks they seem to do everything as if there were.
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