You know the jerks who run stops signs? Or pass on curved hills?
Yeah, those are the ones now saying, “I’m healthy.” And “I’m gonna do me.”
They have no idea they LIVE because the rest of us BRAKE for THEM.
Driving rules work because acting according to the same set of expectations is to everyone’s benefit: we all get where we intend, safely. They are generally intuitive and standard across the world (with a few cultural exceptions). But, they only work if everyone abides by them. Safe roads require mutual buy-in.
These days, that buy-in is waning and a robust niche market for defensive driving courses has emerged out of necessity. Every parent of a new driver will empathize. Many of the “supervised driving” hours with our teen daughters were spent drilling how to drive in order to compensate for – to avoid the potentially disastrous consequences of – the dangerous, stupid, and selfish actions of others. Smart drivers drive defensively.
The parallels to the COVID-19 pandemic hardly need explaining. Mutual buy-in to the social distance protocols will keep us all safer with minimal effort. The moment we lose (or fail to gain) buy-in, the risk to everyone increases and folks will react strongly, either shrugging the safety burden altogether or taking on a disproportionate share by acting more defensively. Each becomes more entrenched, and we’ve seen this movie before.
We’re all in this together. Don’t be a jerk.
vidamixta 