Debra Goldman's Consumer Republic

Citizens of the Consumer Republic love their voices to be heard. Given the opportunity—and now, with the Internet, there are literally millions of them— we can be counted on to register an opinion, render a judgement, or vote a preference on matters high and low. As a nation, we are not only addicted to speaking our minds, we insist on being heeded.So why do people loathe jury duty so much? I asked myself this question recently as I sat in the main jury room of Manhattan civil court, wishing I were somewhere—anywhere—else. After all, isn't the trial-by-jury system government at its most interactive? Isn't it an expression of faith in the people's right to choose, and in their ability to choose rightly? To be a juror is to play the ultimate reality game show, with real money, jail time and human fates at stake. Fox News Channel sells itself with the slogan, "We give you the facts. You decide." It works for Bill O'Reilly; why not for jury duty?The very same people who happily log on to vote for their favorite Super Bowl commercials will do anything to get out of jury duty. Everyone has a story about how they beat the system by declaring thieves should be punished by having their hands cut off in the public square. During the voi dire process for my on-the-job injury case, I could not help but admire the woman who, in a convincingly belligerent performance (at least I think it was a performance), was eliminated after yelling at the plaintiff's lawyer. Then there was the thoughtful physicist who made the defense lawyers turn pale when she opined that, if there had been an accident, surely someone was to blame. She got off, too."Got off." It's funny how the vocabulary of jury duty borrows from the lexicon of the defendant. In fact, a juror and a prisoner have a lot in common. Jury duty is probably the most visceral encounter most Americans have with the coercive power of government. It is where citizens of the Consumer Republic meet the civic one—and it isn't pretty.Think about it. A jury summons orders you to appear at a certain place at a specific time. Once there, you can't leave until you're told. In between, you are marched around the halls by people in uniforms. If you ignore your summons, the state can and will punish you—though that threat hasn't prevented half the people I know from throwing their summons in the trash. They're hoping the system is as incompetent as they suspect.It happens that during the '90s, New York state instituted a number of reforms in its trial-court system, all intended to bring the consumer ethos to the juror experience. The old benches in the main jury room have been replaced by more comfortable cushioned seats. "Productivity gains" have cut jury selection time by two-thirds. The staff, meanwhile, appears to have undergone customer-relations training. Juror coordinators resemble kindly high-school civics teachers. Newly customer-sensitive bailiffs now treat the jurors with I-feel-your-pain commiseration—the better to distract them from the fact they are their jailers. But make no mistake: Jury duty is not a customer experience. It is about serving, rather than being served, and at a pace guaranteed to drive your average 24/7 multitasker to despair. The familiar depiction of Justice, blindfolded and holding a scale, should be amended to show her with her other hand over her mouth, stifling a yawn. In the stuffy main jury room, you'll find everyone who hasn't been dragooned into voi dire slumped in open-mouthed slumber by 3 p.m. They look like victims of carbon-dioxide poisoning.Indeed, serving on an actual trial is akin to spending days on end in a doctor's waiting room. O, the sinking feeling when you first walk into the jury room and spy the dog-eared Scrabble box and the pile of 2-month-old magazines, sure signs that you have entered hell's lowest circle of tedium. Not that it's a waste of time. Voting some TV contestant off an island is a waste of time. The good news is that once most people accept the inevitablity of serving on a jury, they rise to the occasion. For the duration, jurors exit the consumer world to dwell in the civic one. After all, our system is only as good as our participation.A sense of duty fulfilled was one of the real satisfactions I gained from my jury duty. But not the biggest one. That was the knowledge I won't be called again for another four years.

Brand Marketing

Debra Goldman's Consumer Republic

Debra Goldman

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Debra Goldman