Tuesday, February 18, 2014

ONLY THE THINNEST VENEER OF CIVILIZATION

The title may say it all about the video at this link.

I watched it 3 times and I'm having trouble deciding who was more anti-civilized. When I'm striding down the sidewalk and I have somebody come out of a door, look right at me 20 feet away and then turn deliberately into my path and set off at a snail's languid pace while blocking the sidewalk.....well, I was gently raised by a Spartan. The rules were always very clear that boys don't ever hit girls but the rest was open to interpretation.

Watching that was like listening to that pack of surviving bicyclists 20 years ago who blocked the road riding 20 abreast in Marin one day and were utterly shocked when a driver simply plowed right into them. Rights are very balanced in reality.  If you go around willfully ignoring other people, stand by to roll with the punch. What kind of "me" bubble do guys grow up in and not learn that? On the other hand, poor impulse control is no excuse for clocking an idiot who is just being stupid.

You never know what makes someone snap but you could guess, right?

2 comments:

Buck said...

Sidewalk rage? I suppose one would have to HAVE sidewalks in order to experience this sort of thing. We have a few here in P-ville, but ONLY a few. ;-)

HMS Defiant said...

Now that I think about it, all the places I've lived in the US had side walks;

About the only place I ever saw people yield to the urge for sidewalk rage was walking up Fillmore to Pacific Heights and around the park there by Sacramento St.. Dog poo had that effect on some people.