Where I live it is illegal to talk on the cellphone while driving, (and all the more illegal to snap shots with a camera phone while traveling at 40 miles an hour). But people do it, taking their eyes off the road and endangering all in sight. On a recent taxi ride that lasted 20 minutes the Somali driver did not draw breath the whole ride. While he drove he filled in his journey form with his other hand, steering with his knee and at times exceeding the speed limit so that my wife had to interrupt him (please excuse me, I’m just a customer). This is regarded apparently as macho by some people, maybe the same sort of people who buy automatic weapons. I call it dumb. I was definitely non-ataraxic during that journey. There is another issue here as well – – manners, but I want to come to manners on another occasion.
It’s amazing that there are not more fatalities , given the size and speed of the (totally unnecessarily huge ve-hi-cles) on the streets of my city. I now drive as little as possible.
In the UK it is now (almost ) illegal to smoke and drive as well as illegal to use the phone. But people still do. Its difficult to police and people just dont care.
The modern disease, not caring. Just too many people, and too many people , like too much currency in circulation, devalues the value of humanity. This blog is (partly) about caring, an antidote to the sociopathy exhibited by a small number of adherents of Epicurus.
Please could you explain what you mean by ‘sociopathy exhibited by a small number of adherents of Epicurus”? Surely true Epicureans do not exhibit sociopathy? Thats a bad thing to exhibit. Epicureans are for moderation in all things and ataraxia for all people