A FUNDAMENTAL OBLIGATION TO BE MINDFUL OF OTHERS

A fat cow accompanied by her equally stupid and obese husband waddle very slowly down the center aisle in a Walmart store completely oblivious of the world. Two children scampering on either side complete the picture and block every one else. Why should they care? They have nothing better to do and plan to spend the entire evening in the store. On the other hand, I have ten errands to run including getting Tylenol to a loved one who has a headache. Whom should I strangle first? The cow? Or her husband? You would say keep the Tylenol handy until it happens to you. Fine, what about these cases?:

• Two runners in a health club walk side by side talking and blocking traffic in a jogging path. The rules clearly state that strollers and joggers should be in single file.
• A Walmart employee working in an express checkout is talking to a fellow employee when five people were standing in line. She immediately got a piece of my mind.
• On a busy freeway, just as I signal and am about to enter the left lane, an idiot executive on cell phone whizzes past at 70 mph. He is the epitome of the word that begins with “b” and ends with “d” – a fatherless child. He could have caused a serious accident. He doesn’t care because he is in his Mercedes Benz. He is used to controlling others rather than himself. How about a public flogging? If only the cops would flag down such motorists, the number of accidents would decrease. Such people will eventually cause an accident, but the biggest tragedy is that they will escape unhurt.
• My favorite example is in an office where people stand in the door way chatting when other employees are trying to get to the printers and copiers. How do these people have the time to while away while others are working?

What do these examples have in common? People not being concerned about others. We all know this as self centered-ness. I think people have a fundamental obligation to be mindful of others. Sure, there is no law prescribing this except perhaps in a philosophical sense. In my view self centered individuals can never do any good in this world; they will always cause problems for others. They ought to be whipped or shipped to Siberia or Alaska (their choice). Everyone has a fundamental obligation to be mindful of others for taking up space on this planet. I wish somehow that this would be made into an enforceable law. Companies spend millions of dollars on fancy training programs, but don’t seem to realize this basic principle. It’s is the fastest and easiest way (maybe cheesy too) to get productivity up. The GNP would definitely double. (I do agree that companies have the team concept and individuals are evaluated on their team contribution too.)

Surprisingly selfishness and obtuseness seem to go well together. The more self centered an individual is, the harder it is for him to learn new things. How do such people get into companies? Its very simple, self-centered people will do anything to further their own goals and very few companies bother to check the candidate’s personality. I would like to duly note that a handful of companies have the “no jerks” policy.

This tirade wouldn’t be complete without discussing the consequences of selfishness to the individual concerned. Philosophically, a self centered individual attracts everything to himself including disease. When this sort of person develops an illness, it's likely to be with him for a long time. Skin problems are also common! God does put a mechanism to correct any wrong tendencies in a human being. This is the type of poetic justice that I like, but before this happens the individual has caused too much damage for others. In the end we are simply left with the obligation to be mindful of others.