Do what you think

Is it just me, or are some people less willing to think for themselves these days?

Let me explain my question with two examples.

Yesterday, I wanted to take some money out from a cash ATM. So I walked into the shopping centre and made my way down the main area where three cash tills were. There was a huge queue waiting to get served – and yet ten metres down the mall another bank till in open view had just three people waiting in line to get served. Why were people so incapable of realising that they could get served quicker by accessing a till just a little way out of the ‘usual’ conduit?

I walked down and joined the queue. I then realised as I waited, that the three people in front of me were waiting for the one person up front to finish at only one of the two cash tills. Hmm… I thought.. maybe one of the cash tills is out of order.

The next person goes up to the ‘only’ machine working and starts punching in the pin numbers. My eyes drifted over to the other machine and I realised, actually, that the machine looked to be in perfect working order. By this time the person in front of me had walked up to the ‘working’ machine.

Sod it, I thought, let’s check out the other cash till. I was right: it wasn’t out of order. So I punched in my pin number and withdrew my money.

The point here is, that each and every one of the three people ahead of me assumed the till was out of order, because the people previously in the queue had acted as though it wasn’t working – because for some reason, at some point, a previous customer had probably had a problem with the machine refusing to process a request (probably not enough cash on their account). So they didn’t even look at the ATM to see it was, actually, in full working order.

Some people are willing to make assumptions based on other’s actions rather than by first hand observation: Sheep Think.

The second example happened on a bus ride going into work on Thursday.

A man stepped onto the bus. My hackles immediately went up, because it was the same man that had stepped onto the bus a week earlier and played a con trick on the bus driver. He was trouble: aggressive, and unwilling to leave the bus, even though the driver stated the ticket he was trying to use wasn’t valid. The man refused to budge. In fact, he seemed to take a peverse pleasure out of the power he felt from stopping the bus going anywhere. He wasn’t going to leave until the driver let him on the bus, and the driver was powerless to evict the man off the bus (due to UK law, physical eviction could be a president for the con man to take the bus company to court).

Fucked up? Yep.

It’s nearly 15 minutes in and I lost my temper. Mainly because no-one was doing anything about the situation. It was a Mexican Stand-off, and much longer of this con game, and I’d be late for work. Again.

Conman cockily says, “Driver – you don’t know your regulations – this ticket is valid. I have no cash, only cards” (he shows off his wallet like this is some kind of justification)..”You can call your head office, call the police, I don’t care.” He turns around and eyes the bus with a victorious gleam in his eye. Conspiratorially he leans in and adds “You’re going to make me late for work”.

At this point, quietly exasperated at everyone’s paralysis, I shouted down the bus and said – “You pulled this stunt last week”

“Excuse me?” Says the smug con man, taken aback that anyone had the balls to speak up.

“I said.. YOU, pulled this stunt last week – it’s the same con trick, and you’re delaying people.”

He stepped forward, weighing up the bus crowd and whether I was on my own in this. I think I was, but fuck it, I decided to brass neck it.

He narrows his eyes at me and then tells me, in no uncertain terms, to fuck off.

“No,” says I, “YOU fuck off. You’re making me, and this whole bus, late for work.”

I suddenly realised that by stepping out and actually engaging with this man, I was probably making myself look as much of a loony as this man.

He pauses a second, glances around, and decides maybe I’m a little too unhinged to engage with further. He turns around, and walks back to the driver; he says he’s going to complain to head office and call the police, and steps off the bus.

What happened next, made me even angrier.

Nothing. The bus was as silent as a graveyard. No-one came over and asked if I was okay.. no-one went up to the bus driver and asked if he was okay. I heard one woman lean over and mutter to her friend “I didn’t want to get involved”.

That’s a problem. If no-one wants to be responsible, no-one wants to be noticed, no-one wants to stand up and fight their corner or actually think for themselves, what are you?

No-one.