Change and the Ensuing Chaos
I’m reading a book called Born on a Blue Day. It’s the biography of Daniel Tammet, an autistic savant with synesthesia (among other things). This blog entry is not a review of this book (as I haven’t even finished it yet), but I am very much enjoying it. It is probably one of the few biographies that I plan to read more than once. Something I noticed about Daniel is that I can relate to him in a lot of ways – and not only because I am also a synesthete. Some of his idiosyncrasies are things that apply to everyone, but for him they are amplified and thus inside of him create a quandary.
Look at his struggle with change. He has mentioned several times in this book that it upsets him very much when there is a change to his routine. He likes order and structure and certainty. He enjoys routine and it bothers him very much when, for example, he is unable to drink his tea at the normal time one day. While it is an everyday issue for Daniel, it is also an issue for people in general. People don’t like change. When a change occurs, Daniel may have a small meltdown and struggle to cope. And then some people just forget that they have a brain.
It has been almost a week since Hurricane Ike hit and our city still has a long way to go before it has recovered. Half of the greater Houston area is still without power. Most of the street lights are not working, which means they are turned into four-way stops. What amazes me is that people know exactly what to do at a normal four-way stop, complete with stop signs. But when an intersection that usually has a stoplight is turned into a four-way stop, people panic. They just don’t know what to do, and I really can’t help but continue to wonder: why the fuck not?!.
They forget to stop. They stop for way too long, and pass up their chance to go. They cheat and go when it’s not their turn. They cheat and go across with the car in front of them instead of stopping and waiting through the next cycle until it is their turn. They decide that they have the right of way and go when it is obvious that other cars are already going. They just plain lose their brains and all sense of logic. It really makes me wonder how many people on the road have taken a driving course. If they have – could they really forget such rudimentary knowledge as the proper routine to follow when coming to a four-way stop?
It boggles my mind. It frustrates me. It really makes me sad.