London driving

On may way in this morning, I witnessed two cars driving through red lights (separate incidents, where the lights had been red for over a minute) whilst the green man was telling people to cross.

It made me wonder if the safety by consensus we all enjoy is finally breaking down.

We all like to think we drive safely, and even if this is true we are ultimately at the mercy of other people. We have to trust that other road users will obey the law; otherwise none of us would feel confident driving down a two way road.

Is this a symptom of a larger problem facing the whole of society? Will historians and sociologists look back at this time and identify the erosion of politeness, lack of respect for small law (ie the laws that govern our everyday lives) and the general retreat into our own selfish little boxes as being the warning signs that western civilisation was on the rocks?

It may sound extreme to cite a case of jumping red lights as an early sign that we are approaching the end of days, and it may be my age that is making me look back on halcyon days of door opening and table manners… but it may also be the apocalypse.

At some point, one batch of middle aged grumpy blokes is going to be right when they say that society is going to hell in a hand basket (rather than just being grumpy and wrong); and it may as well be my generation that takes that honour.

---

Ironically, DitDotDat finds corroborating evidence.

Written by exmonkey on May 25th, 2006 with 2 comments.
Read more articles on General.