It’s 09:31 on Monday morning. Yes, that’s right, 9:31AM in the morning and I already have a story to tell you.
Driving to work this morning I took my exit off the highway and stopped at the traffic lights. To my absolute shock the BMW did not stop at the red robot that we were both stopped at. He paused and drove straight through it.
This was not one of those, “It’s almost green for me I’ll go” moments. This was a proper red robot (traffic light) that had JUST turned red.
So I hoot to let the guy know that he has done something illegal. Because he had done something illegal.
Now the very interesting part of this story begins here. There are not many office parks that top the size of the one that I work at so chances are that I will bump in to anyone getting off that off-ramp at that time. And I did. In fact Mr BMW man was right in front of me as I entered my office park. So we both go through the booms but he senses that I am behind him.
He stops his car in the middle of the entrance, sticks his head of the window and proceeds to ask me if I have a problem. This is how the conversation went:
Me: Yes, I have a problem. You went through a red robot.
BMW: Who are you? The police? You are a nobody.
Me: I am not the police, but you broke the law and could’ve hurt someone.
BMW: You are no one, are you a traffic officer?
Me: No, but what if you had killed someone, can’t you see you did something illegal?
BMW: I don’t care, who are you, you are nobody, what’s your problem? You can’t do anything to me.
And sadly he was right. Sadly I honestly thought that upon inspection I would find some semblance of humanity. But alas, I was mistaken.
This is where I begin to get exceptionally irritated because I can almost bet my bottom dollar that this is the type of person (one who believes that red traffic lights do not apply to him) who will bitch and moan about anarchy in our nation and that he wants to leave and doesn’t feel safe because of all the crime.
Well let me just inform you of something. I don’t feel safe either, Mr BMW man, I don’t feel safe because of stuck up brats like you who believe that crime only means murder, rape and violence. Well you broke the law today and you made me feel unsafe on the road. I wish you would take your pseudo-importance and fancy almost-wealth and leave this country of mine, it would be a safer place without idiots like you.
So I conclude that occasionally, in fact probably more often than not, anarchy filters from the top down, not the bottom up.
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October 5th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Wouldn’t it be a shame if Mr. BMW man was leaving work today and found that all his tyres were flat.
October 5th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Sad…that is frikking sad man, sorry you had to deal with an insignific-nt like that, Honda for life man!
October 5th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Nic would you have chased a Taxi down if he had done something similar? I doubt it, just let it go, there’s no way the BMW driver will drive any better because you stopped him and kindly asked him too. I think I would have reacted the same way he did, only because 3 years of driving an hour and a half from Pta to JHB and back everyday has engraved a sense of “I really don’t care what you think of my driving” into me, like a Taxi driver with only a little more respect for the law. I’m sorry to say, but it really has changed me.
October 6th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
I know this feeling of frustration so well. Nothing you say or do will actually bring on that much longed for aha moment, like for him to maybe think: Ok, I’ve been a schmuck. This is usually when my higher self leaves the building and who-the-hell-do-you-think-you-are enters. But I have learned to let it go (not to sweat the small stuff) as it gets me absolutely nowhere. Just leaves me flushed and irate.
October 19th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
The only way people like this guy learn is when they or their loved ones are injured or killed because of flouting the rules of the road. I commend you for confronting this clown and showing some backbone. We need more people like you who won’t just sit back, shrug their shoulders and say, “Ah well, what’s good for the goose…” I see people saying” don’t sweat the small stuff”, but I don’t agree with that. Sometimes it’s the little things that mean the most. We can only live in a safe and secure society once all South Africans decide to live by the rule of law, because only once this happens, will we be able to progress and live in a country that has so much to offer its people.
October 29th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
nik, you’re using anarchy to mean rule-lessness. in fact, anarchy means ‘mutual co-operation for mutual benefit’.
the whole road system of observances that your man ignored is a prime example of anarchy in action. while you usually beleive that people collabvorate on raods because of the law, the sad fact is that the law cannot actually police large event volumes. people collaborate on the roads, voluntarily, because it makes their lives easier. that’s anarchy. your bmw guy is actually an anti-anarchist.
d
October 29th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
tim, you make an exceptional point about the small stuff – the idea was originally ‘don’t sweat’ = ‘don’t have excessive emotional reactions’, not ‘don’t pay any attention to’. it’s really, really important to pay attention to the small stuff, because the entire basis for our type of societies is a succession of small, continued collaborative agreements being kept.
d