What is it with people today, not paying attention to where they are going, and when they finally realised that they are on a collision course with you, they just stare blankly at you, wondering what the **** you are doing there. How dare you be in THEIR way.
This isn't a new thing, and it certainly isn't limited to any particular demographic. In fact, it seems almost part of evolution. Years back a joke illustration was made of the evolution of the human race, showing it going from hunched, to stooped, to walking upright. With a new addition at the end of the human starting to stoop again to naturally be in a "staring at phone screen" position,
But here's the thing, it's not even just phone zombies now, nor the latest addition, hoodie wearing cybermen, as predicted by Doctor Who decades ago. Wherever you go, you are sure to find one of the varieties of the human race who are incapable of looking where they are going.
Coffee drinks away with the fairies, phone zombies fixated on their screens, school mums too busy chatting to acknowledge anyone else around them, regardless of the danger they pose. Headphone wearing day dreamers, or just plain ignorant ****s. There are many more, as well as combinations of the able, but lets keep this basic shall we.
Every time I leave the house, for a walk, a dog walk, a run, a ride, or to drive somewhere I am guaranteed to encounter a number of them. Running along, balancing along the kerb so I don't have to run into traffic, but hey, you do you, why should you budge over just a tiny bit, how dare someone else need to use the pavement.
Walking the dog, the phone zombies staggering down the road, I try to keep property side of the pavement, dog on my left to use myself as a barrier between the person and the dog. Here they come, swerving down the road like a drunk at 2am after kicking out time. Suddenly they reach me, looking up in shock and disgust. Confronted by a furry face who is now interested why they are so close to their human. But hey, my bad !!
It just goes on and on, scooter riders, as well as bike riders, just popping out of nowhere, then suddenly joining the road right in front of the car, but again, shocker, they are surprised there is a car on the road, imagine that.
The point I am getting to here is a simple one. Spacial awareness, it is something built into us as part of self preservation. Awareness of danger around us, avoiding coming into physical conflict with anything which poses a threat to our well-being. But alas, it's slowly being evolved out of us, and replaced by entitlement.
The dirty looks you get from someone who just put themselves in mortal danger is a thing! Rather than shock, relief and maybe an apology, you now get confusion, aggression and an entitled rant. "You should have been looking out for me".... NO! YOU should look where you are going and be more aware of your surroundings.
Phone snatchers thrive on this new mentality, do as you please without recourse. Walk down the road in your own little world, completely unaware that there is an e-bike heading towards you with a rider in a balaclava, woosh, suddenly there is no more distraction, and your phone is gone, probably with all your credit cards etc too. If only you were move considerate and aware of what was happening around you. Rather than rudely barrelling through the streets expecting the world to part like the Red Sea.
Then we have pedestrians and cyclists who end up being hit by bicycles, mopeds, scooters and cars. Everyone else is to blame, it is never the person involved. The ability to take responsibility for our actions and occasional mistakes is gone. Replaced by... yup you guessed it, entitlement. Some scenarios and how they play out.
Pedestrian bumps into phone zombie... pedestrians fault.
Phone zombie walks into road and is hit by cyclist... cyclists fault.
Cyclist jumps red light and hits a car... cars fault.
The list goes on an on, but somehow, every time, the entitled arsehole somehow manages to blame the other party.
And then you have cyclist mentality, which is a whole thing of its own. I recently saw an old clip on X which was of a cyclist running a red light and close passing a woman with a buggy. Alarmingly quite a few people went either with "didn't hit her, whats the problem" or, "shes was in the wrong for stopping when she saw him, she could have caused an accident". Unreal! Don't defend the indefensible, don't make yourself look stupid, and take some damn responsibility for your actions.
If things carry on the way they are going, the world is doomed, and the human race, especially the western world, is done for. Sod climate change, attitude change is the thing that is most damaging to the existence of humans on this planet. And what makes it even worse, is the infrastructure and laws of the land are changing to support these arrogant entitled attitudes.
That's better, now I don't have to think about writing this blog every time I go out and encounter these arseholes.
Thanks for reading.
