Archiv der Kategorie: Culture

Here you find posts about life styles and mindsets of different countries, indtustrial sectors and business functions.

When doing gets false

These seasons that seem colorless and uncomfortable to some. When the clouds are hanging low in the sky and moisture is constantly exposed to gravity. The soil is no longer able to absorb the water. And artificial roads seal the ground additionally. Then shallow lakes are formed everywhere, in which the dark clouds are reflected. And then a car drives through a puddle and hurls the water into the air. Bad luck for those, who are passing by at this very moment and, in addition to the rain from above, get a gush from below. The natural reaction is to scold after the car.
But why? What the hell happened? Who did something wrong? The motorist, who was forced through the puddle involuntarily? The pedestrian who had nothing better to do than walk by the puddle right then? When gets doing false?

Let’s take a closer look at the situation.

  • The driver
    Driving with a car in pouring rain can be strenuous, even at 40 kilometers per hour. The spray of oncoming vehicles, the thick raindrops and the roads full of puddles require the full attention of the drivers. And then it happens very quickly. If it weren’t for the pedestrian besides the puddle, the driver would have done everything right. He had no reason to soak an unknown passer-by. Did he DO something false?
  • The Pedestrian
    With such weather, you don’t chase a dog outside. You can’t escape moisture with the largest umbrella. At the next corner the drops are even flying horizontally. One escapes only partially from the downpour. And then it happens very quickly. If the car hadn’t arrived exactly at the moment he passed the puddle, the pedestrian would have done everything right. I bet the passerby didn’t want to take a shower. Did he DO something false?
  • The circumstances
    It is not common for a downpour to dump so much liquid onto the road that the drains can no longer absorb the water masses. In the trenches at the roadside rushing streams evolve, which here and there expand into small lakes. It is easy to sink in these puddles of water above both ankles. And then it happens very quickly. With a sufficiently dimensioned drain, this puddle would not have formed and the car would not have sprayed the pedestrian. No one had created this general weather situation either. Or who DID something false?
  • Prior reasons
    On this day, the driver had started his journey earlier than usual in order to drive particularly carefully. The pedestrian had waited specifically long for the rain to stop. The road was built in the eighties according to the latest guidelines for drains. Many other stories could be told. And then everything happens very quickly. In the end, fate came true at this puddle. No one would search in the previous stories for the cause. Or what was DONE false here?

Nothing happened intentionally. Everything is just an unfortunate concatenation of circumstances that led to the event described. And actually, false DOING is not the right description for errors that happen. No one makes deliberately mistakes like this – except: the arch-enemy who waited to deliberately throw a giant fountain at the hated pedestrian. Whereby this action is not really a mistake, but a well-founded, deliberated act,

Bottom line: To do something wrong requires that there is an intention part of it. If mistakes happen at work or elsewhere in everyday life, then these events, whose guilt is blamed on someone, cannot be prevented, because they happen unintentionally. Ok – you could have been more careful, less negligent and more committed. And yet mistakes would still happen. To do nothing is the only way to avoid wrongdoing. And that would be the biggest mistake. To maintain momentum, it is better to develop tolerance to errors. A mistake is a learning opportunity and provides the starting point for new solutions. Then doing won’t get false – and less goes unintentionally wrong.

What remains for most of us?

A gate agent of an US airline recently denied boarding to passengers for improper clothing (leggings). The Paris Opera expelled a Muslim woman from the hall due to her niqab. In Mallorca it is forbidden to walk in bath clothes through the city. The so to speak public areas are more and more limited and regulated. When do we start regulating buying in the supermarket, going by bus, visiting the cinema and all the other profane things of everyday life, with an order that extensively limits the individual rights and privacy? What remains for most of us?

The whole thing is intensified by the fact that less and less areas are common property that you can use at will. The desired behavior in these areas, like buildings, roads, parks, forests, and places, is regulated by private or governmental bodies. With the increasing provision of generally accessible places by businesses and the retreat of public areas, the free spaces are narrowed, where the general public can fulfill itself – sometimes free of charge and sometimes with an entrance fee.

All these places are subject to different regulations. The green may not be entered. On public streets are less and less parking lots. This leads to the fact that on one airline you may not fly with leggings and in the other one you may; you may enjoy a performance veiled in one opera hall and in the other not; you may enter one building with a dog and the other one only without; you may be under video surveillance in one road, without knowing, what they do with the images and in the other one you may not; you may spend the night in one park and in the other one not;  you are not allowed to mountain-biking in one forest and in the other one you may.

In the US some companies drain the water reservoirs of communities for a small fee. Afterwards, they sell the water filled in bottles for a lot of money to customers – also to the residents of the communities, who got in the meantime water problems. The remaining common properties, like air, streets and education, will become administered on a trust basis and likewise chargeable – for each breath.

The regulation of the everyday life is progressing continuously. The consequences are already visible, although deterring futures were already extensively depicted in literature and in movies.

  • The big brother is watching you in 1984 by George Orwell – nowadays also during Internet usage (more here).
  • The prohibition to read books in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury – nobody knows, which filters are already restricting the access to certain information.
  • The consequences of the virtualization in Matrix by the Wachowski brothers – it is worthwhile to look into the near future with Ray Kurzweil (Transcendent one).
  • The assisted suicide in Soylent Green by Harry Harrison – so far only the multi-media attractions are missing.
  • The preventive pursuit of future perpetrators in Minority report of Philip K. Dick – for the time being potential suicide bombers get already electronic tags before the first criminal act, in order to prevent that they blow themselves up.

In extreme cases you can only live your personal style in the context of certain rules. The related convictions will limit the variety and colorfulness of the world. Do we really want this?

Bottom line: Since more and more examples arise frequently that mean restrictions for the majority of the population, the time has come to observe these trends. The community gets more and more limited. Everywhere evolve regulated zones. At the same time other cultures are pointed at and their local rules are stigmatized as unfree. The question that arises is what remains, if we get in the so to speak public areas more and more rules imposed. Which dress-code is valid for the evening walk or shopping? When do individuals make money with common goods like fresh air, good streets or education? And what is the cost of using it? What remains for most of us?
Obedience?