Another Movie Thread - Because We Love Them So

[kandrathe]

Just yanking your chain But, really, the more freedom and responsibility one leaves to the individual, the more intelligent, concerned, informed and responsible the individual needs to be. Our library scoff-laws are almost an argument for a paternalistic totalitarianism. They need a father figure (or maybe a Big Brother) to keep them in line.

Or, just natural consequences. I was defending a peer today from the parents of an education student who neglected to turn in his assignments, and who did not receive the grade he wanted (but did get the grade he deserved). Too many people believe they can get whatever they want without paying the piper. That student (with his parents help) is our customer and ostensibly he chose our college due to our integrity, and the value of the product (undergraduate degree) we sell to him, which he then wants to corrupt and cheapen not just for himself, but every alumnus, and future alumnus. Just as the library scoff law enjoys the services of a library, however, were everyone to treat it as she did, there would eventually be a nice useless empty building.

I've long since come to the conclusion that if you want a good read on the morality of a nation, look at the little things. Murder, larceny, robbery, etc. are curbed by law enforcement and, usually, peer pressure. Look at the little things. Littering. Obeying the traffic laws. Tagging and other graffiti. And, yes, returning library books. Just as the nature of an individual is best revealed by what he does in private, so is the nature of a society best revealed by what it does where there is little, or no, danger of punishment.

I think a part of it is the increasing anonymity of our society. We tend not to know each other anymore, unlike DeeBye's small town, and that distance from each other enables us to not be held accountable for our little errs. I am who I am because of my parents teaching. Such as with litter; Every spring growing up, our 4-H club (of 100 kids and their parents) would walk along and clean a 10 mile long stretch of highway. At the time, I hated doing those projects, but I always marveled that we'd load up so much trash every year. We'd also would pick an area destroyed by fire, or wind, and replant it with seedling trees. We would go sing carols at nursing homes, rake leaves for people who had trouble doing it, go to depressed areas and feed the hungry, and we'd raise money (with bake sales and car washes) to help repaint peoples houses in our town who couldn't afford to do it. Again, it was often back breaking work, and as a teen I really wanted to be doing other things. Now, looking back, I think if you engage kids in service projects to make things better in your community, you teach them values.

For traffic laws... There just are too many rules, too many drivers, and not enough officers to be able to enforce all the rules for all the drivers -- so people learn they can get away with it. And, again, people are insulated in their own metal skinned cocoons, so they feel no remorse treating others on the road badly.

Ok... Here is an idea I've thought about for implementing traffic harmony... A form of laser tag. If someone does something wrong, like cuts you off, or tail gates you, you press a button on the dash or steering wheel and your car scans and enters their license plate number into a DMV database. Every "zap" costs something like a quarter to keep people from going nuts and zapping everyone. But, every zap you get against your license plate also costs you some small "fine". Rather than get angry at some jerk on the road, I'd be willing to zap them with a fine, even if it cost me a little to do it. The bad drivers would end up literally paying for their mistakes, and this psychologically would induce them to alter their behavior. Kind of like the ultimate game of "Survivor" where we all get to vote the jerks off the island (er, roads). Beyond that, it would be a new revenue source for maintaining the roads, and make rush hour much more fun.

Sue got an iPad from her dad as a present. But she doesn't use it to read much.

Pocket frogs.