As relative creatures, we sure are inconsiderate.

Unless you’ve grown up under a rock, I will not be able to comprehend your lack of consideration for others.

As the urbanised creatures we are today, a vast majority of us would have grown up around others- i.e in a community or society of sorts. As a strong believer that structure drives function, I hold the inability to perceive those who lack utter consideration in their actions for the people around them: The structural environment we live in should indeed drive our behaviour and by extension, our interactions. Some, however, seem startlingly un-programmed to register “People” in their system- they exist as individuals blindly oblivious to the impacts of their actions, unable to grasp the concept of their own externalities.

But it goes beyond that. As relative creatures, we do not merely exist as separate individuals but as minute entities existing on a far larger canvas of networks and connections. Think: we emerge into this world first known as someone else’s daughter, son, granddaughter and so on- we exist fundamentally in relational terms to each other. Rarely are we ever introduced as our own selves, at least not at first. It feels, therefore, rather natural to say that we are wired deeply with “relativity”, making us very much others-centric beyond the self. As a corollary, beyond the moral hazard it poses, lacking consideration almost seems contradictory to our human identity.

Quite recently, while on a 6 hour flight, a particularly anal woman reclined her seat backwards- not once but thrice while I was enjoying a rather pleasant plane meal with a drink, to the point that I could easily lick the movie playing on my screen (I do not have a long tongue either, if you’re wondering). Frankly, it wasn’t about the lack of space- although that was a very real concern as well- I simply could not understand her ability to enjoy the extra space at the expense of someone else’s comfort. Plane seating has always confused me this way- since young I’ve constantly wondered why they were engineered as such, readily at the expense of the unfortunate person sitting behind. I am not one to shy away from confrontation either- so yes, I did indeed let her know, but to no avail (she glared, then pretended to be a non-english speaker). I suppose pushing your seat back is alright, my only gripe with it is the extent to which it is done and how much it unreasonably infringes on others.

Negative (and positive) externalities inevitably arise from our choices. It is humanly impossible to consider all the intangible and unseen impacts of our actions- that is not what I kindly ask for, nor is it something I tend to practise overly either. All I ask for is a baseline understanding and awareness of the observable.

What goes through the mind of an inconsiderate individual? That, I do not have an answer for. Perhaps, precisely nothing?