2015.07.26 Asshole Philosophy

From RooKwiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

"Write about what you know."
It's an old adage about writing, and the writing on this blag is in need of all the help it can get - even of the classically trite sort.

So, what do I know?

  1. Engineer-y stuff. Boring - trust me.
  2. Cars. Oh, shit. Not another car-centric post.
  3. Trivia. Really, this should be #1, and subsume the previous two listings. It's like a curse of mental lycanthropy that prevents me from functional socialization. Not so much boring as having an interest event horizon³.
  4. Philosophy. Sort of. Mostly just stuff that soothes my confirmation bias and preconceptions about the world. Getting closer...
  5. Assholery.

Wait. Let's pause.

This mode of introducing the topic so clearly labelled in the title probably gives rise to some sort of systematic preparation on my point. Which is a blatant falsehood. No, the real source of my topical blathering this time is the simple consequence of... driving in traffic. Or, more specifically, driving through varying sorts of traffic in and around Portland Oregon. Where cyclist ride like L.A. commuters¹, and most cars appear to be driven by stoned teenagers with terminal indecision.

It is plain that I am swimming in a sea of blame along with all the rest of us in vehicles - swarming along together, in spite of each other². The aspects that I tend to find fault with in other drivers are many, as are undoubtedly the ways in which other drivers find my driving habits bothersome. And a while ago I started trying to address that.

Going back, I would classify myself as an irresponsible driver when I was much younger. A small dash of relevant training from my father plus a giant ass-load of luck meant that I survived this phase. But I merely graduated from outright stupid to safely⁴ aggressive - mostly involving avoiding risking other people's safety and reducing exposure to police disapproval. Various aspects of this I've thought about for a while, and don't really need to delve into. The point instead is more about deliberateness.

A common fallacy is to project our own modality onto other people. And so, being a fairly deliberate person (especially with respect to driving), I would behold another vehicle doing something very inconsiderate and think "why are they being such an asshole?".

Eventually I realized that a great many people are not, in fact, deliberately being assholes. They're unintentionally being assholes, because they don't understand the meta-messages their actions telegraph (for whatever reason).

The question I'm left with is: does that distinction have any functional meaning? Does the feature of deliberateness have any bearing on the reality of those exposed to the assholery?

I'm thinking: nope.

 

 

 

 

 

 

¹ Some or all of this painfully accurate simile was "borrowed proudly" from something the Wife read.

² Literally and figuratively. Yes, I am disgustingly pleased with myself for that turn of phrase. I should be ashamed.

³ HA HA HA HA HA! I think I'm sooooo funny. Probably most of the problem right there.

For relative values of "safe", obviously.