I was not amused when some time back someone put up an update on Facebook expressing the intention to give out spoilers of some popular movie or other of the time, one which I intended to watch. The reason for doing so? Apparently others had done the same to the person, successfully ruining the movie experience, so the person wanted to do the same to yet others.

The logic defied me.

The last thing I want is to know the details/endings of movies or books ahead of time. Like many others, I prefer to take the journey myself, find things out on my own by reading/watching.  So, under the circumstances I had only one choice left: Un-follow the person. Like hell someone was going to spoil my experience for me for no fault of mine, but because someone else did it to them. Not fair at all.

Pardon me while I now seemingly wander off to a different topic, but one which you’ll discover towards the end, is after all connected to the one above.

One day a friend and I were having a discussion on the perils of driving in our city. The wrong use of high beam and people’s reluctance to switch to low beam came up. I told her how annoying it was when drivers blinded you by their insistence on using high beam on city roads when they shouldn’t. My friend was quiet for a while and then said,

“I always use high beam.”

I was mystified. “But why?” I asked her.

“Well, people blind me by the powerful beam…so why shouldn’t I?”

“But then those who you blind by your use of high beam aren’t the same ones who caused you distress!” I said.

She had no answer to that, but she insisted she wasn’t going to give up her habit of using high beam unless others did the same. Hmm… Wasn’t she too one of these ‘others’ she spoke of, I wanted to know. How about each of us doing our own part? Whatever, she answered, having lost interest in the topic and not ready to pursue it any further.

What the heck is the problem with people? This A beats B, so B goes and beats up C sort of logic simply escapes me.

©Shail Mohan 2018