Paul Theroux...a society without jaywalkers might indicate a society without artists.
About This Quote
Jaywalking is a way of life for most people. It is a thing that we do without thinking. Sure, we would never go out of our way to make sure that we jaywalk, but we still do it. It is a part of life, and it is something that we take for granted.
But why do we jaywalk? We do it because it is a part of life. Jaywalking is not something that anyone does just because they can. It is a part of living and it makes that living better for those who live it.When you see a group of people coming out of a store, you may not be sure what street they are on, but you know that they have just spent money there.
They have spent their time there as well as money. In order to get to where they were going, they probably had to walk by the store they just came from as well as others they passed on the way there. Thus, they have been passing stores all along the way from where they first went in to where they are going now.
And, yes, all of those stores are maybe very close together or right next to each other. No one in their right mind would think about jaywalking in such circumstances. Everyone would just keep walking straight ahead without looking around for the road signs telling them which side to walk on when they are crossing the street or which direction to walk in when entering or leaving a store or establishment.
They would just keep walking straight ahead because that’s the way things are done when you have grown up in this society and you have grown up in this society because everyone else has grown up this way so you don’t feel strange doing anything differently than your friends do or your family does or your neighbors do because then you would stand out like a sore thumb and people would talk about how strange everyone was acting. So instead, everyone keeps walking straight ahead without looking around for road signs because everyone has always done things this way and it makes everybody comfortable because things are done this way and everything works out fine anyway so why change them?
Source: The Great Railway Bazaar
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