Quote:
Originally posted by lumberjim
Can any of you HONESTLY say that you practice this philosophy?
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No, but this a great thread topic.
After a minute of thinking, I have an example of when I did though. The results were less than positive but not disasterous.
My dad and I were riding the train back from Cali a couple of years ago. I had a situation with some obvious non-thinker and spoke my peace to the crowd.
We were in the Chicago Amtrak hub and were being held up because of a big snowstorm. There was a train to take us the rest of the way east but it was late. We ended up sitting in the lobby for about 10 hours.
During that time the whole crowd of passengers watched as this one odd looking and acting man would ocassionally ask what time it was or specifics about the status of the train arrival. He wasn't crazy but he wasn't normal either. He was not offensive but was not pleasant in any way either.
After many hours the train had arrived and the passengers were lining up to board. I was at about the middle of the line. We were all tired from the previous leg of the trip and from laying on the floor since we outnumbered the chairs.
I saw this dumbass coming up the line from the very end. I knew exactly what he was going to do, and stepped out of line directly in front of him. At the same time I tapped another of the larger passengers and directed him to stand between me and the wall. The guy I tapped just looked at me as if to say "what are you doing"? and didn't move. Dumbass went right around me.
I shook my head yes and said sarcastically in an audible volume "thats right, I dont have to wait in line, and I dont give a GOD DAMN if all of you people have waited as long as I have, I can do
whatever I want". At the same time I looked right into the soul of the other passengers attempting to stare me down. You know, that look that says "go right ahead and look at me, I'm right on this one and you know it".
One guy said something like "give it up buddy" to which I jokingly said to my dad "hey come on, lets go to the head of the line, these people arent going to do anything about it" and continued to stare directly into his pupils. He knew I was right and eventually looked away. We both stood in the same position in line as everyone avoided eye contact until we boarded the train.
Was the guy that cut in line a retard? Hell no, he knew that everyone would just bend over and let him through, because this was a case of courtesy, not law. I suspect this guy has a lot of people
trained
This, by the way might very well have not happened if there was someone else with balls in line. Dumbass would have done one of three things; tried to push his way through us, cried about how we were blocking his path, or just turned around and waited like the rest of us.
If he would have made contact in any hostile way, I would have pounded his ass. People nowdays dont get their asses kicked enough. It
corrects bad behavior in the future. The majority of the time it isn't required, just the commitment to doing so if necessary, is enough.
But these days, you cannot count on the help of any store or company employees to help keep order, it's the job of the other customers because the company doesnt want to open themselves to legal hassles.
The penalty to us all is that people believe they can do whatever the fuck they want, with no resistance. This is a major reason that I dont go out to malls and such any more.
Chewy: would you have stood between me and the wall in this case? Whats your opinion, was I wrong for attempting to cut this guy off from cutting us off?