Cause and Effect

I RECENTLY had to queue to use a toilet, lining up with my fellow bladder-emptiers along the left-hand side of a corridor. The person in front of me had decided to stand on the right-hand side, meaning that anyone who came out of the toilet had to zig-zag their way along the corridor in order to squeeze past him. It was the same old problem of somebody having no spacial awareness whatsoever and who was completely lacking in empathy.

I decided to try a little experiment. “If I cough,” I thought to myself, “this individual will realise that he is blocking the corridor and move to the left.” It worked. As he glanced at me over his shoulder and quickly shuffled in line with the rest of us, it suddenly occurred to me that I had made him conform. “How ironic,” I reflected. “Any true revolutionary would be standing on the right-hand side.” But then revolution, for me, is about order and not chaos. By all means mess up the queue if it leads to something worthwhile, otherwise get out of the bleeding way!