You've had the experience of walking along and negotiating around someone who is walking slowly, weaving, or bumping into other pedestrians for an obvious reason: He or she is talking on a cell phone, listening to an iPod, or texting on a Blackberry.
And you've had the natural, inevitable response to this annoyance: demanding a law to prevent it.
Oh, you haven't responded that way?
No I bloody haven't. I do get mad. I wonder why some people are so bloody oblivious; why it is too difficult to tuck themselves away in a non-traffic space for the duration of their call; why they lack the ability to co-exist courteously and intelligently with the surrounding people and environment. The same thoughts flash through my mind when I see people who have stopped their vehicles in the middle of the road to chat to a friend; or stand two shopping trolleys abreast in the supermarket aisle yacking; or travel at 40 km in a 70 km zone.
I do not demand a law to prevent it.(Oh, confession, I have been known to suggest that if people have to keep down to a speed limit they should need to keep up to it also, but if push came to shove I wouldn't actually support such a law. Some people are such awful drivers they probably cannot handle faster speeds. But that's a whole new topic...)
Obliviousness. Or oblivion. Whatever. One of my pet hates. Probably the best way to wake people up is to deal with it on the spot. Give them a rude and abrupt shock of some sort. Preferably with your mouth, not vehicle. That would have more impact and effect than a remote, faceless, unenforced law.
The trouble is those of us who do try not to inconvenience others, who are consciously trying to live co-operatively with others, who are prepared to make compromises like walking a few more metres in the rain because double parking outside a school is dangerous, are also not the type of people who enjoy being unpleasant and confrontational. That's THEM.
So its rock and a hard place time. I don't have the answer. Except that parents should do a better job of teaching and showing their kids that being even semi-conscious of their planet earth co-inhabitants would be a good idea. For everyone.
6 comments:
I think we should have a law against taxi drivers from stopping to let people out in the middle of the road when there is plenty of room for them to pull over. I think the death penalty is not too harsh for this heinous crime.
And tradesmen blocking a driveway when there is a parking spot within 10 metres.
Oh, and fat people walking two abreast slowly through town, thereby blocking the entire footpath.
And...
I'm sure we have the highest rates of it in the O.E.C.D.
"a rude and abrupt shock" ~ thought at first you might be suggesting a cattle prod, but realised that is something I might favour but you never would.
Peter
i hate it when people who you know have no money, insist on standing at the money machine attempting to make it change its mind as they try every card known to man..Grrrrrr
Two she-mountains travelling side-by side up the supermarket isle, at the pace of a glacier...
I'm an advocate of fitting harpoons to the trolleys!
Spacial awareness is lacking in many people. Possibly due to a shrinking world where with cell phones and Ipods, etc. the reason to interact with others is diminishing, hence to lack of spacial awareness.
Notice how many people walk around looking down and not up? Not many smile either.
Being of reasonably large stature and weight I find that it is easy to push past people, I crash my supermarket trolley into lane blockers with gusto and have been know to push an errant lonely trolley from one end of the aisle to the other.
It actually signals another problem in New Zealand. We complain too little. We need to interact with people on an individual basis and tell the clods where their unsocial behavour is offensive.
No wonder my nickname is "grumpy" but sometimes idiots just need to be told.
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