I have heard it said (one of those made-up statistics, and probably unverifiable anyway) that above 95% of people in this country are seriously short-sighted. I can well believe it.
Laser corrective surgery has yet to make many inroads here, and even contact lenses still seem to be something of a rarity, even amongst the super-rich. The modestly affluent still wear glasses - and often with frighteningly thick lenses that you suspect were issued without the benefit of a proper eye assessment, and certainly without regular updating. Almost everyone else walks around with uncorrected vision.
So - when drivers, cyclists, pedestrians do something incredibly selfish, obtuse, reckless.... sometimes indeed (all too often, in fact) run right into you in apparent oblivion of your existence, and you are tempted to yell, "What's the matter with you?! Are you blind??", you check yourself and reflect,"Oh my god, yes, the poor sod practically is."
I sometimes fret, though, that the limited visual field with which so much of the country suffers also contributes to another problem that is ultimately perhaps more serious - a limited field of imagination. A lot of people in this country do seem to have a serious handicap in terms of altruism - the ability to consider anybody's welfare but their own - and foresight - the ability to anticipate and plan more than a few minutes ahead.
I'm sure there must be some kind of connection between the two. A lot of people here don't seem to be able to see their hand in front of their face, literally or metaphorically.
5 comments:
oh dear, what brought this on? were you recently run over?
I thought you weren't in New York City.
Actually, I find the traffic in NYC comparatively civilised. Most of it is taxis, and they drive pretty well. Chicago - in my experience (and I've been to a lot of places) - is THE city for homicidal drivers in the US.
I have been knocked over - at VERY slow speeds - 4 times in this country.... by drivers who either couldn't see me or couldn't remember where the brake pedal was.
Not recently, though. It just happened to come to mind. On the sidewalks, in the subway, it is a daily vexation - as you know.
You clearly need to get yourself some local friends! When you're strangers, many people in Unnamed City seem to have no remorse about knocking you over to get on the subway, order a Big Mac (as if they were in short supply) or whatever. But once you're friends, it's another story entirely. I've experienced levels of consideration and selflessness nigh unknown among my (all too often busier-than-thou, "sorry but I've got my own thing going on") Western friends...
Well, I can't very well go into that whole "who is your friend?" thing they have here without COMPLETELY blowing the 'Where am I?' game.
I have plenty of local friends, but I do sometimes feel uncomfortable that their helpfulness is so exaggerated, so over-generous. It's a pity their motivations are sometimes compromised too - not necessarily cynically driven by the perpetual search for 'favours-for-favours' (although that does happen too), but certainly arising in most cases from a rather superficial notion of how 'glamorous' and status-enhancing 'foreign friends' are.
And it is only within the magic circle of 'friends' that you see people showing kindness and consideration here. Strangers don't count. Strangers are 'invisible'. It is the one thing that really disheartens me about this country.
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