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From: orb@whuxl.UUCP (SEVENER)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Re: Mr. Sykora isn't civil?  Mr. Reagan isn't honest?
Message-ID: <648@whuxl.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 4-Jun-85 10:09:28 EDT
Article-I.D.: whuxl.648
Posted: Tue Jun  4 10:09:28 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 6-Jun-85 03:25:31 EDT
References: <617@digi-g.UUCP> <1340134@acf4.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Whippany
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> >/* brian@digi-g.UUCP (Merlyn Leroy) / 10:34 am  May 28, 1985 */
> 
> >Hurting someone: a criminal
> >    Not helping: a creep
> 
> How much do I have to help people so that I'm not a creep?  Why?
> 
> 						Mike Sykora

In a previous posting I pointed to extreme cases in which our obligation
to help each other is quite obvious.  But, except for parenting, they 
are rare cases in our everyday life.  But in moving to New Jersey from
the Midwest I am struck daily by the difference between cooperation and
competition.  I hope readers will note that these comments do not apply
to either all people from New Jersey OR the Midwest.
In all cases there is a range from nice to mean with people in all 
categories.  But the median and average behavior is different.
Everyday as I drive in New Jersey I am struck by the almost total lack
of cooperation and consideration for others in this state behind the wheel.
When a line of cars is stopped at a traffic light they never leave room for
side streets to get out- instead they cram up as close to the next bumper
as possible.  This means that anybody waiting in the side street is totally
stuck until the traffic light changes.  This in turn makes people in the
side street very irritable so that they are compelled to simply barge out
into the main street come hell or high water.  And indeed they *have* to -
if they don't nobody will ever give them room to get out.
This generally doesn't happen in the Midwest. People cooperate and try to
consider others, especially when such consideration entails little real cost.
Midwestern drivers are far more apt to leave room for people to get out from
side streets.  The problem where I came from at four-way stops was waiting
for somebody to actually go - most drivers were patient enough to simply wait
for others to go first before they would go.
This same behavior is echoed again and again on the road.
What is the cost of simply leaving room for side streets to get out onto
the road when you are stopped at a traffic light anyway?  The cost is
almost nothing - when the light turns green there is always a lagtime before
traffic starts moving anyway so being 6 to 10 feet closer to the next
car in line hardly matters.  But most people in New Jersey are too competitve
or selfish to stop to consider that  :  all they think about is 
"I am in a big hurry.  I want to get as close to that traffic light as
possible."  The fact that sometime *they* will be the one stuck in the side
street because some creep failed to leave room for them to get out never
occurs to them.
Because they are too selfish to consider the good of others 
*everybody* suffers.
Mr. Sykora and his fellow Libertarians can live that way if they wish.
But I find such a selfish attitude and culture a nightmare.
                  tim sevener  whuxl!orb