Ever Notice

theories of a basic level of human decency tend to fair poorly in contact with actual humans?

Had an… interaction… with one of the thoughtlessly selfish today.  Ironically, she got prissy because I tried to be nice—she was on the phone in the gym, clearly yelling to be heard, so I hopped off my machine and turned off the far-too-loud music—even with my earbuds up too high, it was too loud.  She then felt the need to lecture me that I should have interrupted her and asked if she wanted it off, then tried to order me to turn it back on.  I demurred the opportunity to obey, and she managed to raise her volume.  (Yeah, me responding poorly to unauthorized orders.  Shock, that.)

Since then, I’ve been watching my back, and trying to make sure that I don’t give indications of any soft targets—a self-centered idiot with no sense of proportion is way more dangerous than an actively malicious one with a sense of proportion.  Seriously bad people will judge risk for reward—selfish, childish, short-sighted ones will get you killed because you crossed them, even if it would destroy their life.

There’s some philosophy on the nature of sin in there, but I’m too freaking tired to deal with it.