Friday, May 12, 2023
Why don’t people allow others to merge into traffic, alternating between two lanes? Why do they force themselves forward and aggressively prevent someone else from merging (or refuse to stop and allow someone to take a left in front of them)?
I think it’s largely because they feel powerless. They are in jobs they detest, they have little discretionary time, they have to commute in highly stressful conditions every single day. They suffered through Covid, they are guilty until proved innocent at airport security, they face confusing laws for their taxes and any businesses they own. They feel “pushed around” and discounted.
So, they use a lethal weapon—a car—to impose themselves on the world. (And many of them try to be bullies on social media, saying things they’d be afraid to say to someone’s face).
The problem is, of course, with very poor political leadership from either party, with the threat of more pandemics, with the uncertainties of artificial intelligence, with the revival of the Cold War, and with high inflation—things are going to get worse before they get better for anyone who feels powerless now.