The mindless machines at the mrt platform

i often go on and on about how the aunties and uncles of singapore purposely, conveniently and skillfully "boxed" me out of the "have a chance to get inside the mrt" zone. i'll mumble to myself, "does it kill you if you din get into the mrt before me?" and then there is "omg i obvious came before you, what makes you think you, who had came from a later train, has the right to cut right in front of me? am i really such a sucker?" 

These thoughts that the person next to you just took advantage of you because you're a sucker isn't foreign to commuters especially when you are a carebear and a gracious sucker like me who refuse to stoop to their level of uncouthness. You start to wonder if the education that the older generation of singaporeans failed at its very core as it produced such selfish behavior that even the younger bunch might shake their heads to. You even start to wonder how these older generations have the nerve to shake their heads at the generation Y people when they are no saints themselves. Obviously such behaviors are not restricted to uncles and aunties, people of all types have showed their "style" of inconsideration and you just think they are just being an extraordinary bastard.

All these unhappiness stems from one thing, the perception that that person that just took advantage of you did it delibrately after thorough thought of the morality of the issue at hand. The perception that the person ought to think about what he had just done and more importantly and subtly, he ought to have thought for YOUR convenience and well being when he did that. "what an asshole" is the usual reaction from you.

Someone else in their defence replies, "well they just don't give a damn about anything and definitely not about you. They din even give it a second thought when they decided to cut in front and elbow you to the back. Actually he din give it any thought at all!". we'll reply, "How is that a defence?! that makes him a bigger asshole". Doesn't it?

What if i tell you these selfish agents pushing their way to the very front of the queue to take the mrt is actually machines employing learning algorithm evolving them to be the perfect queue cutter and winner in the bid to get on the train. Their brains are just wired through the years to be  subconsciously selfish. They dont give a damn about you or anyone because they have become just a machine made to ensure they get a place in the mrt at all cost. Our unhappiness suddenly falls dramatically. "It can't be helped" we maintained "if they were just machines that couldnt have consciousness to judge their own actions."

I argue that the people at the mrt platform and whoever had pissed you off through their inconsiderate behaviors are exactly those machines. I argue that most of what people do in their selfishness are done at a subconscious level. It is too painful to weigh every single mundane decision even for the intellectuals and definitely for normal people like you and i. In fact there is nothing but pain in the act of judging whether one action is selfish or not because when you perceived that selfishness, especially when it disadvantages you, you feel like you've lost something at his advantage.

It becomes a robbery of your well being whether it is something as small as blocking your way by standing on the right side of the elevator or as big as somebody managing to make your life miserable doing things that made him look good  at work. On the flip side, there is no particular benefit to anyone most of the time when you go way out of your way to provide convenience for someone else. most of the time there is no telling your good will and your graciousness are even perceived by the person benefiting from it because it might be something so insignificant to them that they just took it for granted and don't care. So you can't blame them for not actively taking the stance of a carebear. Life just didn't require or have much of a use for such behavior in your area in this aspect of your life.

life is just full of suffering and injustice when we judge the person that has disadvantaged you, life is surreal when you stop wanting others to be ethical creatures up till the smallest detail and just accept them as mindless machines. i stopped getting pissed by singaporean aunties and uncles cutting in front of me when waiting for the mrt and cursing on in my head about how they are selfish and beyond hope. They are but machines going about their everyday business of cutting in front of suckers like me who thinks graciousness gets him anything more than a self crowned status of higher morality and suffering.

If I may be allowed to venture to add, the requirements of the environment had evolved these selfish behaviors in all of us subconsciously. when everyday is a "pack us like sardine" day on the mrt platform, if everyday was a "the most wayang gets the most credit" day, then there will be people wired to succeed in that most unglamorous way (at least you think so). stop complaining at the inevitable. Dont try to even ask yourself the question of whether an action is selfish/considerate/fair or not because most of the time nobody gives a damn anyway. Just mindlessly go about the most painful part of your day and let those machines do their thing, just beware that you don't become one of them.