Death by Boomer

I live in a very large neighborhood largely filled with very old people. There are "big box" grocery stores about thirty minutes away. Half as far away is a small strip mall with a small-ish grocery store. If we just need one or two things, we'll swing by the small grocery store to grab them.

Consistently, a driver will try to kill us in this parking lot. I exaggerate the "killing" part a bit here. Consistently, we have to act defensively to avoid accidents. That's not an exaggeration.

On one recent trip, J and I turned into an aisle of parking spaces. We're about to turn into a parking space when a car starts backing out. She notices us eventually, looks shocked, and hits her brakes. That was one. A moment later, J and I are walking along the same aisle towards the store. A parked car is running. I'm alert that the driver might start backing up. She does. We stop because she doesn't see us. Half way out of the park space, she does a double-take, realizing she didn't see the pedestrians. We let her proceed in front of us. A few steps later we reach the crosswalk to get from parking to the store. We stop to look for cars. Just then a car blows through the crosswalk (and through the stop sign), completely unconcerned and unaware.

Why'd I bring up boomers though? We live in the middle of nowhere. I'm confident that the majority of the patrons of this grocery store and strip mall are residents of my neighborhood. They're just ... unaware. Or unconcerned?

I recall forever ago, I was riding with an older gentleman who pulled out in front of another driver, more-or-less cutting him off. He explained to the passengers in the car, "that's why he has brakes." Ehh. I imagine a similar rationale employed by those who just cruise in the left lane of highways. "They can go around me on the other side." Of course, not all of these captain-speed-limit drivers cruising in the left lane or boomers; not even most of them. Same mentality though.

There's something to be learned here though, and it isn't "rule following". In a high trust society, you do the right thing because it is the right thing, not because of the consequences of doing the wrong thing. Order breaks down when the individual decides he doesn't care; the proverbial throwing of the monkey wrench. Do your part to promote order in good systems. I suppose as a corollary, you should do your part to bring chaos to bad systems.