A funny thing happened to me whilst driving down the M11 from Bishop Stortford yesterday afternoon. I was overtaking a lorry that was travelling on the inside lane. Then I noticed that whoever was driving was disposing of what most might consider as various bits of litter (plastic bottles, screwed up paper, tissues and so forth) out the window into the traffic. A steady stream of it - maybe a dozen pieces at regular intervals. The driver was perhaps looking for something in their cab, maybe (he comments with excitement) disposing of incriminating evidence, or perhaps simply having a "clear-out" I'm not sure, but it made me think. On a common sense level I guess most would say this behaviour was "wrong", but my thoughts weren't about thinking what was "right" or "wrong" - but "why?". And that's a curious "why?" rather than an indignant one. Why at some level, psychologically or emotionally, the driver had become detached from the environment, from fellow road-users, and most certainly detached from the longer term and wider consequences of their actions. Are they compromising their own integrity by acting like this? It might have been a "one-off" for the driver, a consequence of circumstance, but whatever, it's a deep one if you choose to think about it, and probably a good metaphor for so many "dis-connections" and compromises in society.....oh by the way in a recent poll apparently one third of us admitted to throwing litter out of our car windows.
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