I figured it was time for a follow up to my previous post. There's actually a lot to it, so I suppose I ought to start unpacking it.
The drivers who follow the rules without thinking...
Well, they're not bad necessarily, though they can be inflexible and unprepared when the unexpected occurs. In this situation, their attitude towards following traffic rules exemplifies their attitude towards rules in general, and there are three issues with this.
First, you could probably replace such a driver with one of those self-driving cars and not notice any difference. That is, they're sort of acting without thought. Doing what they're programmed to do. To draw on all those religion classes as a kid, they seem like the type of people Jesus would want to remind that "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath."
It's like... they're basically turning off their own brain and accepting the wisdom of whoever created the rules in the first place.
Which, again, is not bad per se. It's just that you can't really outsource that sort of responsibility. There's a reason "following orders" is not considered an acceptable reason for committing war crimes. No matter how much the military (or society, or whoever) tries to instill blind obedience in you... you still choose whether or not you obey. And you have an obligation to recognize when orders are illegal, immoral, and just plain wrong... and to disobey when given such. You can't shove all the responsibility off on whoever gave you the order, because you are a thinking being who chose to accept and follow it. (When it comes down to legal cases I understand prosecution has been mixed, and I'm sure some of it is tied in with whether or not you were aware that the order was illegal in the first place, and how much you really knew when you decided to obey. Which is part of why it's important to teach people ahead of time what makes an order illegal in the first place, so that nobody can claim ignorance as an excuse.)
And (the third reason) if you believe that power corrupts than you'd understand that any organization, or person, given blind obedience grows corrupt more easily. History has repeatedly shown that all man-made organizations are vulnerable, whether we're talking religious, government or corporate. It's our willingness and ability to show that there are lines that shouldn't be crossed, orders that won't be followed, and that we are paying attention and will take action when things go too far that hinders corruption. Blind obedience enables abuse.
So the law-abiding drivers are, well... they're okay. Not bad. You might even say they're 'good'. But...
They're less than they're capable of being. Like they're half-asleep. Not thinking. Not fully engaged with the world around them. And (again drawing on that religious upbringing), you might even call them 'lukewarm'.
As for the driver careening through traffic, weaving in and out heedless of the havoc left in his (or her) wake...
I wouldn't call them a 'leader', though there is something about seeing someone choose a different path that tends to draw followers, so I suppose they are leading by example. It's just...
Okay, so they set the example for a different way of driving. And others, upon seeing it, decide they want to do the same. More and more people see such behavior and choose to imitate it, until eventually traffic (which previously consisted mostly of rule abiding drivers) now becomes a free-for-all that requires all your skill to navigate.
I won't say it's bad... some people may even find it exhilarating. Adrenaline coursing through their body at yet another near-death experience on their daily commute. Then again, others may come home exhausted, stressed out by narrowly missing other cars five times on the way home, and swear to themselves that they are not leaving the house again unless they absolutely have to.
The point, though, is that someone modeled a behavior that was since imitated to such a degree that it entirely changed the nature of the commute. And if it was deliberate, if someone was trying to create that changed environment, then I would probably call it 'leadership'. But I suspect it was really just one person being selfish, someone with a disregard for the rules as applied to themselves, who wanted to get wherever they were going as fast as possible (and the idea that everyone would do the same, and would thus create an environment where they would be unable to pull the same tricks to speed through traffic, well... it probably never even crossed their mind.)
The third example is the trickiest and most complicated by far. They're the type of driver who, when stuck in a traffic jam and able to see their turnoff ahead, might drive on the shoulder to reach it. Like... they wouldn't drive on the shoulder just to get further ahead, because cops and ambulances might need the shoulder to get to wherever the source of the traffic jam is. But if they can clearly see their turn off, and can get there without causing any sort of problems, they'll go for it. It's a win/win... letting them get out of the traffic jam sooner, and removing a vehicle from the congestion on the highway.
Or maybe they're turning on to another road, but they choose to wait until an oncoming car passes (even though, if they really hit the gas they could probably make the turn ahead of them) because they know they'll only be slowing down for another turn just down the road. There's no point rushing ahead just to brake again, especially when it forces the car behind you to slow down as well. It's like, if you personally hate having a car get in front of you only to brake seconds later... don't do that to the car behind you.
The point, with this driver at least, is that they're not blindly obeying the law... but they're also not selfishly disregarding it, either. And while I won't say every decision is made mindfully - all drivers go on auto-pilot at some point or another - this driver is, in some ways, consciously creating the driving environment they want.
We, as a society, make a lot of 'thinking outside-the-box', and having a vision, and seeing beyond what is to what could be.
And that's important. It really is. It's something all the 'blindly obeying every traffic law' driver doesn't have, which also means they're not actively shaping the world around them.
But just because you've realized that social norms and conventions are as binding as tissue paper, doesn't mean that you're making good decisions about what to do with that realization.
What world are you creating? Is it one you'd really want to live in? (If not, well... you know what to do.)
The drivers who follow the rules without thinking...
Well, they're not bad necessarily, though they can be inflexible and unprepared when the unexpected occurs. In this situation, their attitude towards following traffic rules exemplifies their attitude towards rules in general, and there are three issues with this.
First, you could probably replace such a driver with one of those self-driving cars and not notice any difference. That is, they're sort of acting without thought. Doing what they're programmed to do. To draw on all those religion classes as a kid, they seem like the type of people Jesus would want to remind that "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath."
It's like... they're basically turning off their own brain and accepting the wisdom of whoever created the rules in the first place.
Which, again, is not bad per se. It's just that you can't really outsource that sort of responsibility. There's a reason "following orders" is not considered an acceptable reason for committing war crimes. No matter how much the military (or society, or whoever) tries to instill blind obedience in you... you still choose whether or not you obey. And you have an obligation to recognize when orders are illegal, immoral, and just plain wrong... and to disobey when given such. You can't shove all the responsibility off on whoever gave you the order, because you are a thinking being who chose to accept and follow it. (When it comes down to legal cases I understand prosecution has been mixed, and I'm sure some of it is tied in with whether or not you were aware that the order was illegal in the first place, and how much you really knew when you decided to obey. Which is part of why it's important to teach people ahead of time what makes an order illegal in the first place, so that nobody can claim ignorance as an excuse.)
And (the third reason) if you believe that power corrupts than you'd understand that any organization, or person, given blind obedience grows corrupt more easily. History has repeatedly shown that all man-made organizations are vulnerable, whether we're talking religious, government or corporate. It's our willingness and ability to show that there are lines that shouldn't be crossed, orders that won't be followed, and that we are paying attention and will take action when things go too far that hinders corruption. Blind obedience enables abuse.
So the law-abiding drivers are, well... they're okay. Not bad. You might even say they're 'good'. But...
They're less than they're capable of being. Like they're half-asleep. Not thinking. Not fully engaged with the world around them. And (again drawing on that religious upbringing), you might even call them 'lukewarm'.
As for the driver careening through traffic, weaving in and out heedless of the havoc left in his (or her) wake...
I wouldn't call them a 'leader', though there is something about seeing someone choose a different path that tends to draw followers, so I suppose they are leading by example. It's just...
Okay, so they set the example for a different way of driving. And others, upon seeing it, decide they want to do the same. More and more people see such behavior and choose to imitate it, until eventually traffic (which previously consisted mostly of rule abiding drivers) now becomes a free-for-all that requires all your skill to navigate.
I won't say it's bad... some people may even find it exhilarating. Adrenaline coursing through their body at yet another near-death experience on their daily commute. Then again, others may come home exhausted, stressed out by narrowly missing other cars five times on the way home, and swear to themselves that they are not leaving the house again unless they absolutely have to.
The point, though, is that someone modeled a behavior that was since imitated to such a degree that it entirely changed the nature of the commute. And if it was deliberate, if someone was trying to create that changed environment, then I would probably call it 'leadership'. But I suspect it was really just one person being selfish, someone with a disregard for the rules as applied to themselves, who wanted to get wherever they were going as fast as possible (and the idea that everyone would do the same, and would thus create an environment where they would be unable to pull the same tricks to speed through traffic, well... it probably never even crossed their mind.)
The third example is the trickiest and most complicated by far. They're the type of driver who, when stuck in a traffic jam and able to see their turnoff ahead, might drive on the shoulder to reach it. Like... they wouldn't drive on the shoulder just to get further ahead, because cops and ambulances might need the shoulder to get to wherever the source of the traffic jam is. But if they can clearly see their turn off, and can get there without causing any sort of problems, they'll go for it. It's a win/win... letting them get out of the traffic jam sooner, and removing a vehicle from the congestion on the highway.
Or maybe they're turning on to another road, but they choose to wait until an oncoming car passes (even though, if they really hit the gas they could probably make the turn ahead of them) because they know they'll only be slowing down for another turn just down the road. There's no point rushing ahead just to brake again, especially when it forces the car behind you to slow down as well. It's like, if you personally hate having a car get in front of you only to brake seconds later... don't do that to the car behind you.
The point, with this driver at least, is that they're not blindly obeying the law... but they're also not selfishly disregarding it, either. And while I won't say every decision is made mindfully - all drivers go on auto-pilot at some point or another - this driver is, in some ways, consciously creating the driving environment they want.
We, as a society, make a lot of 'thinking outside-the-box', and having a vision, and seeing beyond what is to what could be.
And that's important. It really is. It's something all the 'blindly obeying every traffic law' driver doesn't have, which also means they're not actively shaping the world around them.
But just because you've realized that social norms and conventions are as binding as tissue paper, doesn't mean that you're making good decisions about what to do with that realization.
What world are you creating? Is it one you'd really want to live in? (If not, well... you know what to do.)
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