It's times like that my head gets a spinning. It's silly to just sit there. No one would ever know if I ran the red light. When you think about it, it's a little stupid to just sit there. You could take 2 minutes off your journey and be in bed that must faster. It's more productive to run the red light. When you think about it, it's more beneficial to society as a whole to run the red light.
You can come up with all sorts of justifications in your mind at 2AM when you are tired and want to get to bed.
So let's say you run that red light. Let's say work a night job and that red light is waiting for you every time you go home. So you run it.
Now let's say a cop sees you running the red light and he pulls you over. You know you were in the wrong but you explain that there wasn't anyone around and it didn't hurt anyone. You explain its late for the cop too. Do they really want to do paperwork at 2AM in the morning?
Your sob story works. The cop lets you off. You wave to them the next day when you do the same thing.
You tell your friends about this new strategy. You tell them how you're excited to add 2 whole minutes to your day. It doesn't take long until they are doing the same thing when they drive at night. Eventually, it becomes common for the townsfolk to do this. The cops don't mind. They have better things to do with their time than to hassle people that run red lights that don't matter.
One night you get off work early. It's 11PM and there's still no one on the road. You see your buddy the cop and you wave as you run the red light. It's ok, you just got off work early. You pause to explain and they wave. You nod your understanding. After all, it's just a red light, there's no traffic and he'd have to do paperwork. You tell your friends.
A few months later you get a promotion. You're working new hours. You now come home from work at 8PM but you still want to save that 2 minutes. There's moderate traffic coming from both directions but there are places you could cross if you are careful. You wait for a moment when the coast is clear then slam your foot on the gas, shooting through the gap and running the red light without a problem.
Your buddy the cop sees this and pulls you over. He asks why you ran the red light. You explain how you got the new job at an earlier hour and how you still want to save those 2 extra minutes. The cop explains that while it is a tradition in town that people can run red lights after 11PM, 8PM is much too early. You confound him with logic - 'Is it fair to those of us that drive earlier in the day are the only ones who cannot run red lights? Isn't that discrimination?' The cop thinks for a moment and you add, 'I was sure to look both ways before going' then a final plea, 'and after all, it's a lot of paperwork.'
Your buddy the cop lets you off with a warning. The next day you come to the red light and face the same situation. You wait for the perfect moment then hitting the gas pedal, easily crossing the busy street. You wave at your friend the cop and he waves back. You tell your friends about it.
Some time later you get another promotion. You now leave work at 5PM and on your first day, you see traffic backed up all the way to your parking lot. You cut down side streets and across alleyways to make up the time. You even drive on a few sidewalks just to get to your traffic light. You see traffic stopped in each direction caused by cars that ran red lights.
You pull your car off of the sidewalk and back onto the pavement, carefully making your way through the smashed cars so as not to damage your own. It takes a while but you make it and on the other side of the road you see your buddy the cop. You wave but he doesn't notice, he's busy taking incidents reports that will keep him busy most of the night taking statements and surely will be filling out paperwork well into the next day.
You racing off down the road leaving the jumbled mess of cars behind. You look at the clock and see your trip is going to take 20 extra minutes. Perhaps it's time to move.
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These are the kind of thoughts that pop into my head when waiting at 2AM for a red light with no cars in sight. Waiting makes no sense when you think about it, but to run it surely leads to anarchy as I've clearly shown. I think there's a morality tale in there somewhere as well.
