More pretend, for adults.
Today I made use of one of my standby pretend scenarios. This strategy's goal is to avoid shame for my generation. Ultimately, this replaces having a dissociative fugue whenever I lose hope in the world.
After waiting at the bus stop this mroing, I stepped into a partially full bus. That is to say that all of the seats were taken and about (what I would think of as) half of the available standing room. At this point I settle down and stand in wait of eventual disembarking. Just before we reached the next stop I complemented a person's smile and began shifting to the back of the bus in order to accommodate the coming travelers. Half of the people at the stop walked onto the bus and then the flow stopped...
...
I waited...
nobody moved. It seemed like time had forgot about Route 26 Southbound for a moment. There was no conversation, everybody had shifted their thoughts toward the individuals entering the motor-coach: you see, to my view there was still PLENTY of room - by plenty of room I mean to say that had each of us on the bus moved to shrink our personal floorspace by 4 square inches we'd have fit everybody on that stop in; I also mean to say that there was at the very least one and a quarter feet of personal space it every direction for each person standing in the bus. THAT'S 9 SQUARE FEET of floorspace for everybody to stretch out in - but apparently, there wasn't. The fact that nobody moved is not my issue, though.
My issue was that the socially minded announcement I proceeded to make to the entire bus, at my own personal risk of being looked at as a dork, had no effect. The small monologue went as follows:
"Come on, you can do better than that! How would you feel if that was you stuck at the curb? What are you afraid of, the person next to you isn't that bad; you're not going to catch Leprosy from him, move back! Do you have any guilt at all?"
But as I had said, my announcement fell on deaf ears. All I had achieved was that now everybody on the bus was no longer focused on the issue at hand, but on me. They stared at me Quixotically, I stared back disappointedly, and the bus doors closed.
It was all I could do not to scream at my peers on that bus. It took all I had to ensure that the thoughts going through my mind were staying there. Is this generation so blinded by their own selfishness that they can't allow themselves the social risk to move an inch and a half closer to the person next to them in favor of another person's punctuality? The bus driver, believing he could fit no more, passed every following bus stop; all of those people just became late for class right in front of you just so that you could avoid any interaction with any strangers! They may be missing an exam, get a bad grade in the class and not make it into grad-school! You may have ruined another human being's life. And you didn't have the guilt to move a muscle when the only people who cared to say anything spoke up.
If you didn't notice in that emulation of my ensuing inner dialogue, I eventually avoided anger at my peers by pretending to myself that I was actually disappointed in a younger generation. It made the bus ride slightly easier because now I could be judgmental without having to analyze my own place in the group. I think what really bothered me was the blatant disregard for the feelings and opportunities of others in this situation. Even at my prompting nobody actually considered what it might be like to have to wake up for an early class, not want to get out of bed but say to yourself "well, I should really try to be on time" only to have that noble effort be proven a complete waste by some collective Jerk on a bus.
Final thought: does anybody else pretend to be from a less a--holey generation? It's sort of a cop-out, but I find it helps me to feel better about myself.
After waiting at the bus stop this mroing, I stepped into a partially full bus. That is to say that all of the seats were taken and about (what I would think of as) half of the available standing room. At this point I settle down and stand in wait of eventual disembarking. Just before we reached the next stop I complemented a person's smile and began shifting to the back of the bus in order to accommodate the coming travelers. Half of the people at the stop walked onto the bus and then the flow stopped...
...
I waited...
nobody moved. It seemed like time had forgot about Route 26 Southbound for a moment. There was no conversation, everybody had shifted their thoughts toward the individuals entering the motor-coach: you see, to my view there was still PLENTY of room - by plenty of room I mean to say that had each of us on the bus moved to shrink our personal floorspace by 4 square inches we'd have fit everybody on that stop in; I also mean to say that there was at the very least one and a quarter feet of personal space it every direction for each person standing in the bus. THAT'S 9 SQUARE FEET of floorspace for everybody to stretch out in - but apparently, there wasn't. The fact that nobody moved is not my issue, though.
My issue was that the socially minded announcement I proceeded to make to the entire bus, at my own personal risk of being looked at as a dork, had no effect. The small monologue went as follows:
"Come on, you can do better than that! How would you feel if that was you stuck at the curb? What are you afraid of, the person next to you isn't that bad; you're not going to catch Leprosy from him, move back! Do you have any guilt at all?"
But as I had said, my announcement fell on deaf ears. All I had achieved was that now everybody on the bus was no longer focused on the issue at hand, but on me. They stared at me Quixotically, I stared back disappointedly, and the bus doors closed.
It was all I could do not to scream at my peers on that bus. It took all I had to ensure that the thoughts going through my mind were staying there. Is this generation so blinded by their own selfishness that they can't allow themselves the social risk to move an inch and a half closer to the person next to them in favor of another person's punctuality? The bus driver, believing he could fit no more, passed every following bus stop; all of those people just became late for class right in front of you just so that you could avoid any interaction with any strangers! They may be missing an exam, get a bad grade in the class and not make it into grad-school! You may have ruined another human being's life. And you didn't have the guilt to move a muscle when the only people who cared to say anything spoke up.
If you didn't notice in that emulation of my ensuing inner dialogue, I eventually avoided anger at my peers by pretending to myself that I was actually disappointed in a younger generation. It made the bus ride slightly easier because now I could be judgmental without having to analyze my own place in the group. I think what really bothered me was the blatant disregard for the feelings and opportunities of others in this situation. Even at my prompting nobody actually considered what it might be like to have to wake up for an early class, not want to get out of bed but say to yourself "well, I should really try to be on time" only to have that noble effort be proven a complete waste by some collective Jerk on a bus.
Final thought: does anybody else pretend to be from a less a--holey generation? It's sort of a cop-out, but I find it helps me to feel better about myself.