Entitlement
It comes in various forms. From shouting your religious opinions to everyone in your subway car, to screaming at a customer service rep because they're not giving you what you want as a matter of policy, to jumping ahead of 900 people in line for a bus.
To those who shout their opinions, religious or not (I once had to hear a guy scream on a platform at 125th street about how the government covered up the real "Jurassic Park"), I say this: the only people to whom you are getting through are the ones who share your opinions. No one likes to be screamed at, especially at 8AM on the subway, underground, stalled between Hunts Point Ave and Longwood Ave. It's claustrophobic enough as it is, and no one wants you in their face before the coffee takes effect. It's not just the mornings, though. It's all the time.
I'm not standing in the middle of a subway car screaming my opinion of you. That's why I have a blog. That's why I use social networks. That's why sane people use flyers and advertisements. So don't stand in front of me screaming about how I have to let your god into my heart or else I'm damned like all of my fellow Americans. Honestly, given the choice between eternal damnation in whatever hell you've concocted in your head, and being screamed at by some psychopath on a mission, I'll take hell.
To those who scream at customer service reps because your personal wealth is equal to 100,000 times what I will make in my lifetime, congratulations. Now go clean up the oil spill in the gulf, and maybe then I'll make an exception for your self-entitled worshipfulness who was too busy to call and cancel their reservation within the time stipulated in the policy.
As to that line jumping business, I experienced that just today. I was at the beach and at 6pm they closed the water and told everyone to be on a bus by 7pm. Well there were 5,000 people there and everyone got on line for the bus, but the line at any given moment was 5 or 6 people deep and stretched almost all the way back to the boardwalk. The entire way, one of the women behind me was screaming to her family that if someone tried to jump her family in the line and get ahead of them, she would throw down. Pleasant. I get it - it was a warning. It didn't work, but it was a warning.
As we approached the entrance to the terminal (which is a fenced off single file queue space), a matriarch from at least 10 families behind us pushed her way up and ended up directly in front of me. There had already been a fight further up in the line when this happened, the police were involved, and I just wasn't in the mood to get into it. Honestly, if you're that desperate to get ahead, by all means. We'll probably be on the same bus, but I have no plans so you go on with your bad self.
The screamer behind me didn't even say anything. But one of her family members crept up to cut off the end of the jumping group and as she pushed forward, the mass behind me pushed into her and I was pushed into. Not cute. Don't push me. That's how riots start, that's how things get ugly. Do not fucking push me. I will push you back.
So anyway we get over towards the bus, another fight breaks out - and this one's ugly. Women from one family beating women from another family over the head with coolers. And while the police focused on that, I watched as 6 people leaped over the fence and cut the line ahead of them. Seriously? C'mon guys. It's a bus. The cops are there, the MTA will continue running buses until everyone is on one and you can go home. All it takes is a little patience, a little grace, and a little understanding of the fact that not everyone else will have those same qualities.
The E-Brake
When I worked ride & show at Universal Studios (Twister) one of the first things they taught you was to not pull the e-brake. It was this bright red button. I think you had to pull it, not push it. At least I'm pretty sure. If you pulled that brake in the middle of the attraction (the main show part of it) the whole thing would stop, it would have to reset, techs would be called, first aid might get called, and we'd be down for a good 40 minutes. The only time you pull that shit is if it looks like the cow is gonna swing off of her cabling and fall into the audience. Well, that and if the fire on the set for some reason doesn't go out and spreads....or if someone is dying. Even in the health cases though, we usually were told to call it in and let the show go on.
Subways have that emergency brake, too. And people sure do love pulling it. Especially on the 6 train. One time it was pulled and we were about 6 inches out of the station. Literally. The doors closed, the engine started again, we felt the car shift, and we stopped abruptly. At least I was sitting down and we weren't going fast. The next time it happened, we were between stations. And it was pulled when we were movin along. Stopped short. I was standing against a railing, and good thing, too because everyone went flying. No one seemed hurt, but people fell to the ground, coffee went everywhere, it was a mess.
The other day I was snoozing on the uptown 6 train ride after work and was awakened by the fact that the door next to me (between cars) was opening and closing. Everyone in my car was migrating to the next. My first thought was smelly homeless person. My next thought was oh god do I smell? My realization was that we had stopped and that it wasn't just my car, but all of the 8 cars behind it pushing through to the next car. Apparently, a train leaving 125th street had the e-brake pulled when there was half of a car left in the station. As a result, we couldn't pull fully on to the platform.
The train in front of us had emptied everyone out via that last door that could access the station. They had pulled our train up and were emptying all of us onto that same platform via the front door. Two subway train-fulls of commuters on the platform, and a 5 train pulling in across the way. It was 40 minutes before anything got moving. I don't understand why people do it. Is it like pulling the fire alarm - just for kicks? Is it malicious, in the hopes that someone will hit their head and die? Is there a mental disease that focuses on inconveniencing everyone around oneself?
And if the e-brake IS meant to only be used in an emergency, why is it accessible by everyone? What exactly is an appropriate emergency in which to use this thing? Perhaps, like many fire alarms, it should be encased in breakable glass. The perps might be easier to catch, then. Food for thought.
