[FRIAM] the end of the pandemic

[Steven A Smith]

On 5/12/20 7:56 AM, uǝlƃ ☣ wrote:
> The contrary argument was made to me by my dad, who called himself a "Goldwater Conservative", was that when you end up as a blood smear all over the highway or all smashed up against a tree, *someone* has to clean that sh¡t up. Factor in, further, rubbernecking, the possibility of children seeing your dismembered body laying in parts on the road as they drive by, trauma to the poor truck driver who you smashed into who'll have to live with having killed you for the rest of her life, etc. You MIGHT save us *all* a lot of money and psychological trauma if you'd simply wear the seat belt. [†]
>
> So, you *are* harming others by not wearing a seat belt.
In precisely the same way I am harming others when I ride a motorcycle
with or without a helmet (THOSE accidents are almost always more gory
than the ones with cars buffering/hiding/containing the mess) or a
bicycle on the roadways with cars, or fail to optimally care for my body
(and mind and spirit ... just google "people of walmart youtube").   The
messes we all present one another by being human are just so
*intolerable*...  we should set a very high bar for how much any
individual can impose on the psyche/sensitivities of any other
individual by their mere existence and exercise of personal
preferences.  Oh yeh... no more convertibles, no vehicles with a power 
to weight ratio above X, certainly no ATVs... and no parkour... that
shit can just go SO wrong, and *somebody* has to clean it up... splint
the bones... gauze over the gaping eye-socket...  >8^D
>
> In the immortal words of teenagers everywhere, it's not about you. >8^D
>
> [†] Add to that the consideration that human life is *infrastructure*. Sure if you're a do-nothing wastoid, your death costs us only the above and may save us money in the long-term. 
I think the answer to this is to be a functional/useful part of a
community, and in fact participate in and generate a shared sense of
propriety and value with that community.  I believe that is easier to do
in the small (nuclear family, extended family, neighborhood, work group)
at least in principle, and in fact I feel that I try to do that in the
large as well.  
> But if you're competent at something, anything, then WE are all better off if you wear your seat belt. To assert that you're *not* harming us by not wearing your seat belt seems extraordinarily self-indulgent.
I do, by the way, generally wear my seat-belt, and not because I might
get a "ticket if you don't click-it".  My father was a USFS employee
from the late 50s who were one of (as he tells it) first government
agencies to have seat-belts installed in their trucks and required
employees to use them.   We did not have seat-belts in the 1959 VW
pickup truck they bought but in the 1964 ford station wagon, they had
seatbelts installed all around, and we were (usually) expected to wear
them.  I discovered as a young driver (with a car with a bench seat)
that I could take those corners a LOT faster and brake HARDER and still
maintain control if my lap-belt was strapped tight across my hips.  I
even coveted one of those "racing harnesses" for the same reason.   In
some ways, you might say seat-belts made me a *less safe* driver.   But
then I learned most of my road awareness and driving skills on a
motorcycle which made me *hyper-aware* of my vulnerability.... while
other parents were buying their kids giant land-yachts do drive around
(because they were safer) I was buying my own (mildly underpowered)
motorcycle and possibly becomeing a much more aware/safe driver in the
process and definitely NOT risking other's lives nearly as acutely as
the first-year drivers on testosterone driving a buick with the
muffler's cut out.  
>
> On 5/11/20 10:05 PM, Steven A Smith wrote:
>> To be told I was harming others by not wearing a seatbelt feels patently incorrect.

>