Discussed: Cars — Trees — Threats to your survival — Moral responsibility — Fractional manslaughter
I just might just have released a rather unprovoked car rant on an unsuspecting @antirez; the creator of redis (check it out - it's awesome). His argument was that if lives could be saved, then maybe roadside trees should be recognised as dangerous and cut down. My response was that drivers that are incapable of keeping their vehicles on the road should be recognised as dangerous, but not necessarily be cut down. Of course Salvatore is the reasonable one here, but...
...I hate cars, and their drivers. For a very simple reason: they're the single biggest threat to me and my loved ones. It doesn't take more than a single asshole who's either having a bad day (stressed out, tired, getting divorced) or suffers from permanently impaired judgement. Not to mention the the worst kind, those with severe entitlement issues brought on by the purchase of an expensive car.
Twice I've heard the sound of a pedestrian hit by a car, once accompanied by the scream of a mother. In both cases it was just a motorist late for work; and I'll be damned if I would have shed a single tear if they instead had met their end wrapped around the trunk of a tree.
Everybody has a hard time stomaching somebody who runs over a child, or any human being for that matter. My perspective on the whole responsibility issue is probably a bit different though. I believe that the person who actually hits the pedestrian is no more guilty than anybody else who decides that it's worth the risk to drive a little faster to reach that traffic light before orange turns to red. Those who actually end up in an accident just got hold of the shit end of the probability stick. What we're left with is a bunch of people committing fractional indiscriminate manslaughter; for nothing. And of course, with that outlook it's hard not to detest drivers.