The other day as I was walking into Sydney for uni, I was quite surprised at two responses to things that I did. The first happened as I was about to step out to cross the road. I looked around to see a car bearing down on the corner. So, not wanting to be hit by a 1.5 tonne piece of moving machinery, I stopped. The driver of the car seemed surprised and waved her gratitude to me; that was what surprised me, that she felt grateful to me for not making her hit me - what I thought was essentially self defence on my behalf. The other response, which worried me more came from a homeless woman who asked me for the time. She asked me just as I passed her so I had to turn around to tell her. When I did, she looked at the ground with an expression that I would have described as fear. Being a six foot bearded male who habitually wears sunglasses and hides his expressions while in public, this is something that I have seen before, but not from someone who initiated the contact. The question that I found myself asking as I walked along was why these responses were so surprising.
The first response I think stems from societies changing attitudes towards responsibility. Where your responsibility used to stem from your actions and position, society has tried to change so that in as far as is possible, you are not responsible for anything that you do, or that happens to you - especially if something goes wrong. This has lead to an increase of court cases that should be laughed out, but amazingly win, like the guy who sued the preschool for not looking after his child while the lawn was being mowed by a volunteer parent. His child was run over while running over to daddy, who happened to be mowing the lawn at the time (for more of these click here). This attempted decrease of responsibility has had a not too subtle effect on the way we think. We can always find someone to blame, can always point the finger, and almost always find a way to pass the buck. The driver of the car, didn't expect me to take responsibility for my stepping out into the path of her car and when I did, she showed her gratefulness through a wave which itself is surprising. Usually, in this circumstance, people will beep their horn at you, trying to tell you that you are at fault and that you should back away from imminent crushing - fair enough as a warning, but as anger, probably not.
The second response is a bit more puzzling. Why would someone who asked for the time appear scared when she received it? and why if she was going to respond that way did she ask in the first place? It may be that she wasn't expecting help and so her reaction was based on a surprising reaction. In that case, why, if she wasn't expecting anything, did she even ask? and why was she so worried when she did receive help? These I think come from the way that we have as a whole started to almost require a choice in everything we do. When she solicited my aid, she limited my choices. So when I turned to give her the time, she was worried about the outcome that didn't involve my actual response. So then why did she ask? My thoughts on this lead me to the conclusion that she wasn't expecting any response and she possibly didn't even want one. If she didn't get a response, she could at least say to herself that she had tried. This may not have been her motive, but thinking about it, to me it seems the clearest possibility. This desire for a lack of response has grown to be a curse upon our society. We fool ourself into thinking that if there was no reaction from a third party (or even a second party) then our responsibility in the matter ends there. In actuality, our responsibilities grow at this point as we then have to deal with what would have happened on our own, and this is too scary for many people these days.
On a different note (E flat to be precise), listen to the 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky - Awesome in 15 and a half minutes of music.
The first response I think stems from societies changing attitudes towards responsibility. Where your responsibility used to stem from your actions and position, society has tried to change so that in as far as is possible, you are not responsible for anything that you do, or that happens to you - especially if something goes wrong. This has lead to an increase of court cases that should be laughed out, but amazingly win, like the guy who sued the preschool for not looking after his child while the lawn was being mowed by a volunteer parent. His child was run over while running over to daddy, who happened to be mowing the lawn at the time (for more of these click here). This attempted decrease of responsibility has had a not too subtle effect on the way we think. We can always find someone to blame, can always point the finger, and almost always find a way to pass the buck. The driver of the car, didn't expect me to take responsibility for my stepping out into the path of her car and when I did, she showed her gratefulness through a wave which itself is surprising. Usually, in this circumstance, people will beep their horn at you, trying to tell you that you are at fault and that you should back away from imminent crushing - fair enough as a warning, but as anger, probably not.
The second response is a bit more puzzling. Why would someone who asked for the time appear scared when she received it? and why if she was going to respond that way did she ask in the first place? It may be that she wasn't expecting help and so her reaction was based on a surprising reaction. In that case, why, if she wasn't expecting anything, did she even ask? and why was she so worried when she did receive help? These I think come from the way that we have as a whole started to almost require a choice in everything we do. When she solicited my aid, she limited my choices. So when I turned to give her the time, she was worried about the outcome that didn't involve my actual response. So then why did she ask? My thoughts on this lead me to the conclusion that she wasn't expecting any response and she possibly didn't even want one. If she didn't get a response, she could at least say to herself that she had tried. This may not have been her motive, but thinking about it, to me it seems the clearest possibility. This desire for a lack of response has grown to be a curse upon our society. We fool ourself into thinking that if there was no reaction from a third party (or even a second party) then our responsibility in the matter ends there. In actuality, our responsibilities grow at this point as we then have to deal with what would have happened on our own, and this is too scary for many people these days.
On a different note (E flat to be precise), listen to the 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky - Awesome in 15 and a half minutes of music.
the very same one that i fell asleep listening to live
ReplyDeletebut that sleep was awesome, was it not?
ReplyDelete