This morning something interesting happened to me while driving. Another driver cut me off in the middle of an intersection intentionally driving through a turning lane almost causing an accident and leaving me stranded in the middle of a busy intersection. Admittedly I shouldn't have however I flipped the bird in the general direction of the driver, little was I to know I started an interesting chain of events. As I pulled off from the intersection, the driver of the other car sped beside my car and pulled in front of my car to block me from driving forwards. Then he rolled his window down to reveal a menacing aggressive face, hands marked with tattoos (of the prison variety) and a general intimidating demeanor. He cautioned me sternly to watch who I flipped the bird to because one day they might shoot you and call me guilty of prejudging the whole movie by the preview but I believe this gentleman could possibly have carried out his threat. I expressed that it wasn't worth dying over and continued to drive on my way but that's when the trouble started (isn't it always, stupid brain ascribing meaning to relatively insignificant events). So I got to thinking, despite the fact that this gentleman behaved illegally blatantly ignoring road rules, what the hell was anybody going to do about it? There were no police around and therefore the only system of arbitration available to us was one of intimidation in some kind of laws of the jungle lord of the flies sense. So I am left with two options, complain about my situation vocalising my disquiet and risk physical injury, or put up with it and let this fucker get away with intimidatory behaviour towards me to his own gain. So now I learned my lesson (don't flip the bird in traffic) but my thinking continued. A few weeks ago while surfing there was one guy at the back of the lineup who continually dropped in on the other surfers stealing waves from surfers who were already on them. For those unfamiliar with surfing etiquette, this is a cardinal sin. Even when surfers called out while surfing along a wave, this guy would continue to paddle in to the wave, causing them to fall and he did it time after time after time. Again, the law of the jungle prevails. So if there is no authoritative body in attendance to any given situation, are we to believe that the law of the jungle is so easily instated in place of a more just authority? And what does this have to say about international justice? My last tangent to spring forth from this highly confronting road rage incident was one of international justice. If a country decides to 'disobey the road rules' and murder innocent civilians in their hundreds by dropping bombs on them and taking their land, if there is no international overseer then where is the incentive to do the right thing? Clearly morals are flexible when the desired outcome is one of personal gain so if countries with bigger military might, more soldiers and less scruples want to disobey the rules, what the hell is going to stop them?
All that from a little road rage incident exposing my vulnerability.
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