On a train, back in February, the fellow sitting next to me complained that the train had slowed down when it entered Toronto. “All the other trains should just get out of our way,” he said. When I replied that there are other people on those trains too, he said, “Yeah, but do you know any of them? Fuck them.”
A few weeks before that, a friend of mine was nearly run off the road, twice, by a sixteen-wheeler truck, as the truck tried to merge into the lane on the highway 401, in which my friend was driving. When the police questioned him about this, the truck driver said, “He should have known to get out of my way.”
These are unrelated incidents, of course – but are they? Have you a story about someone who was not just indifferent, but actively hostile to the idea that other people have needs and rights? Do you think our society is getting a little colder, a little more aggressive, a little less compassionate, a little less empathetic?
3 Responses to Question: Are We Getting More Aggressive?