Rights of way are testing the boundaries of our way of rights

Of the interesting things that often happen to me, one of the more frequent is traffic related. Although I have given up rushing through traffic, because it rarely helps, and although I delight in letting others pass into the traffic, I still have my challenges.

The thing that gets me most is simple inconsideration. Time and again I have tried to cross a lane only to be deliberately blocked by some or other small-minded "rival". In Paris we were told that when a driver ahead indicates, it is a signal of intent not a request. Sure enough we saw that Parisian drivers simply expect following traffic to anticipate that they will move as soon as they indicate. I wish it was always like that.

One day I took a wrong turn into a side street, so I scanned ahead, to ensure there was no oncoming traffic and then turned into another side street so I could loop back. I had no intention of barging back into the traffic, but a fast moving car still came within inches of my nose, heedless to the fact that my intentions could not have been known to him or that I was temporarily blinded by my turn.

So I chased after him and asked him to get out of his car. He protested in a local dialect, "It was my right of way". I retorted, "Rights of way don't prevent accidents, but common sense does." But he insisted it was his right of way even after I explained that a court would have held that he was in a better position to avoid an accident. When he realized that he was losing the argument he got back into his car, but before he sped off I shouted, "The problem with our society is that everyone believes he has the right of way". 

Human rights have served some good. I celebrate the emancipation of women and modern society is generally more humane towards prisoners (sometimes too much so). I also celebrate Bills of Rights and constitutional law. But when our rights start to violate social norms and moral or ethical values, I fail to see how that is still a right of way. I think of issues like public prayer or sharing of one's faith or blasphemy in the movies or government's handling of the biggest and most sensitive issues of our age.    

What I often resent most though is the imbalance. Everyone wants rights of way, but few recognize the reciprocal virtues of responsibility, consideration for others and social grace. Social norming is one of the most powerful value-checks in all healthy societies. Indeed, even the laws of Moses were translated into oral traditions. So, now I am left to wonder, where will our society end up if our deference to rights of way robs our social fabric of its backbone: the healthy restraints that ensure our survival.

Paul warned in 2 Thes 2:7, that the restraining influence of God's Spirit on humanity will be removed in the tribulation period. Society is therefore still blessed by such restraints even though we are so hell-bent on testing our boundaries, but what will become of us when He abandons us to our folly?

(c) Peter Eleazar @ http://www.4u2live.net/