...I was listening to Mrs ERJ chatting with another woman where we attend church.
Mrs ERJ mentioned that one of the local school bus drivers called both her and me after they spotted one of our children stranded beside the road with a flat tire.
It is worth noting that this is at least ten years after said bus driver transported our little darling to school.
Tom and Steve
I worked with a couple of Toolmakers (Union classification) who had transferred to one of the Lansing plants from the Detroit metro area.
Steve was livid. He had just found out that Tom had been stealing golf carts from the "livery" when they went golfing and that this had been going on for two years.
Tom always volunteered to rent the cart, a fact which should have been a red-flag because Tom never volunteered for anything. He loitered by the cart-corral and when a golfer returned one he jumped in and drove it off.
Steve was furious because Tom had been collecting half-the-cost ($20 per round of golf, twice a week) of renting the cart from Steve for those two years.
Tom, on the other hand, was gleeful that he had perpetuated and gotten away with the scam for almost two years and had pocketed $40 of Steve's money a week and NOT spent $40 a week for his share of the cart rentals.
What is morality?
Those of us from small towns and rural areas flatter ourselves to think we are more moral than big-city types. While that might be so, it is not due to any inherent virtue. Rather, it is more likely due to the fact that we have no realistic chance of getting way with poor behavior.
Tom's logical fallacy was that "It is OK because I got away with it."
Our logical fallacy is "I am morally superior because I am able to resist the temptation when I know I cannot get away with it."
Moral judgements aside
There is no "virtual anonymity" on the internet. We may think we are remote and anonymous and safe but SOMEBODY whose initials rhyme with NSA knows who we are and where we are sitting to within +/- 1 meter.
The behavioral defaults that got programmed into us knowing that our family, neighbors, bus drivers and others in the community were watching SHOULD provide some degree of protection on the internet. Loose lips sink ships and all that.
It is puzzling that some players are given free pass for smoking crack, banging hookers, embezzling funds, cheating on their taxes and saying "nigga" fifteen-times-a-minute. Maybe they are bait. Maybe they are "protected species". In either case, there is no advantage in assuming their protections extend to us.
General James Norman Mattis's advice still holds: "Be polite. Be courteous. And have a plan..."
Per moral judgements:
ReplyDeleteSome parts of our population are Tribal, others are societal.
The difference is obvious.
Having seen up close and personal both sides, I want societal but with "The Plan".
ReplyDeleteTom and Steve
ReplyDeleteI don't mind too much if some one is running a con, but not on your friends.
"Don't shit where you sleep"
Sometimes the small time con doesnt work. My dad played Golf with a guy...they played 2-3x a week . He always met dad on the first tee. Dad thought it strange, his friend never , ever went into the club house. After about half a year his friend got busted. He wasnt paying green fees. Just sneaking past. They gave him a choice...pay green fees x3 times a week x # of weeks and right NOW or police called. He found his checkbook.
ReplyDeleteI went to Carleton Elementary for the 5th grade only.
ReplyDeleteThat was (mumble, mumble) years ago and a few months ago I got a message on FB from a woman who asked if I had attended there that year.
I wondered what I had done that finally caught up with me.
She had been my teacher in that class (and hot too!).
I was amazed.
That may be why I have so few friends . Fook me once it's yourn . Fook me twice it's mine .
ReplyDeleteSeen it a couple of different ways ....
ReplyDeleteBe polite, be courteous, show professionalism, and have a plan to kill everyone in the room.
Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.
I've always been partial to ...
“I come in peace. I didn’t bring artillery. But I’m pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you f*** with me, I’ll kill you all.”
Mattis reportedly said this to Iraqi tribal leaders.
Laws are applied equally - to everyone on the Right.
ReplyDeleteDad told me, in his childhood in 1920-30's Misssippi, everybody was broke (farmers), but nobody stole anything. Because you just didn't. And if you did, the KKK would drag you out, tie you to a tree and horsewhip you (just as they repeatedly did one of his uncles for beating his wife). He also said he got the best food in his life, up to that point, when he went into the Naval Amphibious Corps at the age of 17, in 1942. He always loved spam. I had never heard of the KKK's non-racial enforcement activities until those stories came out. He always said unscrupulous people gravitated to cities because it was easier to hide.
ReplyDeleteA teacher of my wife's, in High School, had taught her mother. So they, and the bus drivers, and police see all the generations.
ReplyDelete