Suited and Booted

Just how much outrage can the world sustain?

I'm constantly amazed by man's capacity to hate and act towards his fellow man in ways beyond my comprehension. This is brought to mind readily at this time of year, given Remembrance Sunday and the media coverage of everything that means. And coverage of the fact that we simply do not learn. Then tonight there was a programme on television about Chinese border troops shooting Tibetans fleeing Tibet, and witnessed by Western climbers in the mountains.

The world wars, the current campaigns, the situation in Tibet, all are mere scratches in history. This type of thing goes on every day everywhere, ranging from xenophobic homicide to a basic dislike of someone because they're simply different from us. Racism, homophobia, it all stems from that same basic difficulty so many people have with realising that they are just other people.

And tonight my own prejudice was exposed when, horror of horrors, I had a good experience with an SUV driver on my way home. Passing a car park the SUV actually spotted me and stopped to let me past before he pulled out. I repaid the compliment by pointing and shouting 'lights' at him as he didn't yet have them on. I glanced back, seeing him pull out and pop the lights on and I gave him the thumbs up. Later down the road he passed me with acres of room, and stuck on his four way flashers as thanks.

In that moment I felt that guilt well up at my initial and immediate reaction to seeing a Mitsubishi Shogun within the city. Okay, so it's still an utterly stupid city car, but in that moment we both saw each other not as a cyclist and an SUV, but as other people. And it made me smile.

It's not quite on the same scale, but I like to think that for a short while tonight there's a little less hate in the world.