Tuesday, 1 March 2011

Some reasons modern society is so F&^#ed Up

When I first had the idea to write this post, I was so angry that I could have attacked someone with a cactus. This was going to be a rant, with the bile of my rage flowing over the screen like it had been jammed in a Mel Brooks movie.

But it's been about an hour since then, and I've calmed down some. Enough to look objectively at my subject matter and decide that, yes, these are the reasons that our society is in such a bad state.

The situation that started me thinking about this was sitting in traffic on the William Nicole offramp on the N1 South.

We've recently had a run of roadworks that were intended to improve the highways and off ramps. Sounds great, right?

The problem is that turning left onto William Nicole is still a disaster! Traffic routinely backs up for kilometers, but the Joburg Road Agency saw fit to leave the turn as one lane. How incredibly short sighted is that planning? It's unbelievable! That was the major problem with the offramp, and they didn't change it when they rebuilt the entire bridge and intersection? WHAT?!?!

The second phenomenon that occurs in the morning traffic is that certain people (usually driving a minibus taxi, SUV, Mercedes or BMW) obviously view themselves as a race apart from the rest of us. We sit in the que for the left turn for 15-20min, waiting patiently for our turn. They, on the other hand, feel it is their privilege to run up the right hand lane and cut in directly at the top. I don't get it. What makes you so much more important than the rest of us? Yes, you are a special and unique little snowflake... just like the rest of us.

The people who let them cut in irritate me even more... these are probably decent, hard working folk, but they keep rewarding this anti-social behavior and propagate it by doing so. I'd like to see a collective effort to block these chancers out... Give them a couple days of waiting while the whole line flows past them and they'll get in line with the rest of us.

So those are the three problems that I see embodied in the morning traffic:

  1. Lack of intelligent forethought

  2. Psychopathic douchebags taking chances

  3. Good people letting said douchebags prosper


<rant/>

On a lighter note: This video is absolutely incredible! This man is so talented, he makes me sick.

Thanks for reading, and as always: Please comment and tell your friends.

-Odd

7 comments:

  1. I think I agree with most of that, not much to say...

    The problem is that people have an instinct to look after themselves before caring about anyone else.

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  2. Yep, you're right... that is the root issue. A sad state of affairs.

    Imagine all the people...

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  3. Of course he "makes you sick". We all revere skill and excelence. At least - those of us who are comfortable in our skin do. I am always in awe of talent; and talent that has been carefully and painstakingly developed and honed has my total respect and admiration. Don't ever forget, Odd, you have a talent; you are developing it; you too are respectworthy and admirable. ( And cool!)

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  4. Thanks ^^

    It was more in jest than serious... but it's an incredible work... and it's breathtaking to watch it come together.

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  5. Wow, a great post too well said, thus rendering me speechless. (No easy task that) its really refreshing to come across a blog with interesting content. Too freaking cool.

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  6. Note - psychopaths by definition survive without remorse. Humans actually care for one another. However, I agree - the psychos should be run off the road. The traffic is precisely why I work from home!!
    Awesome movie.

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  7. Lead SA by not letting queue jumpers in!!!

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