Monday 8 December 2014

A matter of principle

I have always believed that pedestrians are the biggest cause of a lot of accidents. To this effect, I decided a while back that I would only cross the road when I have the right of way; not that pedestrian crossings are viewed as our right of way by drivers (another story for another day).
If and when I get to a traffic light and it is red for the direction I'm moving towards and there are no cars in the other direction, I will still stop and wait for the green man. I'm sure a lot of people have looked at me like I'm crazy for doing this, but I have always just told myself, it is the right thing.
The other day, however, I stood as normal and waited, while about 6 people walked past me. Another lady stopped next to me, and after a few seconds, I started walking across, and she walked with me. Midway through our cross I turn to her and say "ayikho kodwa lento siyenzayo" (what we are doing is not right). The lady responds so quickly as though she had been waiting for this and she tells me this is something she never does, she always waits, but this time around she crossed because I was doing it. We went on to talk about how very early we both were for work, so there was really no reason for us to act foolishly and possibly cause an accident or something of the sort. We both could not believe that we had done something that we believe so strongly that is wrong, only because other people were doing it.
This got mw thinking about how easy it is to fall into "crowd thinking and/or acting", even without realising you are doing that. This has generally caused a lot of people to live in such a way that they never take responsibility for their actions and always find or have someone to blame for their very actions.
Also, it made me realise that just a slight shift from what I believe in, can impact someone else in a negative light, even without my knowledge. Moral of the story? Always do what you believe is right, regardless of whether it will make sense to other people or not.

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