Vehicles of Estrangement!

Why is it that when people get behind the wheel of a car they believe that they are suddenly immune from the rules of a civil society?  The windows go up, the stereo goes on and people think they are anonymous so rules of civility are forgotten.

I live in a small town and I was riding my push bike along a reasonably busy road when I stopped at a traffic light. On the other side of the road the lights turned green and a young woman went to move but her car was obviously having trouble. The first reaction of the traffic behind her was to beep their horns and yell abuse. The woman, who was now clearly distressed, put on her hazard lights but the traffic still honked and yelled abuse as they roared past. Nobody stopped!

I hopped off my bike, crossed the busy road and told her I would give her a push into a nearby allotment; the cars continued to honk and roar past.

The people of my small town seem like decent folk, and I know not everyone has the capacity to push a car, but the anger that was seemingly being leveled at this woman, when she clearly needed help, surprised me.

It got me thinking that modern vehicles isolate people and afford a level of anonymity such that they are estranged from what they would normally consider decent behavior. There seems to be a distinct similarity to online trolls or people hiding behind false facebook profiles to treat people as they would never treat them to their face?

It shouldn’t matter how anonymous you feel, if you disrespect others then deep down you disrespect yourself and you cannot remain anonymous to yourself forever!

A little kindness goes a long way, even if nobody knows that you are doing it!