This Is a Bad Way To Drive (and Live) | Daily Stoic

With the proliferation of dashcams and the spread of social media, we see these clips everywhere. It’s basically its own genre of video at this point. A driver is frustrated with someone going too slow in front of them, so they honk. Then they swerve, step on the gas to pass them–often waving a middle finger or honking a horn or shouting out a rolled down window as they do so–only to almost immediately get pulled over. Or violently crash. A vivid, painful demonstration of poetic justice a few miles down the road.

It would be funny if it wasn’t so dangerous.

But at least it is a good reminder: First, that life on the road is dangerous. Any one of us could die in an accident at any moment–in fact, nearly 43,000 people died on U.S. roadways in each of the last two years alone. Our modern cars, modern culture built around highways, is filled with risks, yet we simply choose to not think about it.

It’s also a good reminder that impulsive, emotional decisions are the cause of so much trouble. Yes, slow drivers are annoying. Yes, in many cases, they are breaking the law themselves. And they are preventing us from getting where we are going. Yet trying to get around them, trying to vent our feelings at them? It’s not worth it! Driving is dangerous enough, the Stoics would tell us if they had lived to see cars, don’t add trouble on top of it. Don’t blind yourself, distract yourself–none of us have the cognitive resources to spare.

Seneca’s wonderful essay On Anger is a must read for anyone traveling on the roads these days. He reminds us what an ugly emotion anger is, and how silly it is to be screaming at people you’ll never meet again. Especially since they probably didn’t inconvenience you on purpose in the first place. And certainly none of it is worth dying over.

Source: The Daily Stoic