How we do the little things

I'VE HAD a stark reminder of the foundational elements of our lawless society. Murders, robberies, corruption and general decay, you see, all have their genesis in the little things.

A week ago, while I was standing at the head of a long line in a gas station, a man simply stepped in front of me to pay. When I pointed out to him that there was a line, he turned to me, shrugged his shoulders dopily, and said, “Whah you go do...beat meh?”

It was an option I hadn't considered, but certainly a viable one.

Violence is the only language many Trinis understand. It's the first resort of a people who took an indefinite pit stop on the route to evolution. Consequently, events around them are processed only in terms of whether they're worth beating somebody up over.

Trinis love to boast of our free education. As a regular sampler of giveaways at groceries, “free” and “good” are often mutually exclusive.

Other people in that line grumbled about the queue-jumper. He, however, moved on with his life and was fuelling his car after having fuelled our frustration. My only catharsis was a short Facebook rant about the incident. That post elicited a deluge of comments from people sharing similar experiences with brutish, inconsiderate cave-dwellers.

Unsurprisingly, there were many others who chimed in with, “Try another gas station.”

The suggestion was offered more as commiseration, but it had the unintended effect of adding insult to injury. That unpleasant encounter with the knuckle-dragger wasn't an isolated incident. Every time I leave my house I'm at risk of clashing with people who simply don't share my standard operating instructions – consideration for others, adherence to the rules (for the most part), and respect for law and order. These are the basics we sign up for when we agree to live in a society together.

Our feral nature exposes itself in the grocery aisles, parking lots, over fences, at business places, and in front of the doubles boxes across this nation. It's grossly unfair that honest, law-abiding Trinis have to make themselves small and accept the inconvenience of people parking in front of their homes, blocking entrance and egress. It's despicable that ordinary people must tolerate a mechanic operating a garage in a residential area, taking up space on either side of the road with decrepit cars that will never be operable again. It is disgusting being forced to live next door to people who routinely play loud music because “that is we cultear.”

Those who find themselves inconvenienced or oppressed by the essence of Trinidadianness must stay quiet or face the threat of violence. Anti-social behaviour isn't peculiar to one geographic location. It is largely endemic in our people.

Every day citizens make accommodations to account for their lawless, inconsiderate and ultimately criminal counterparts. We adjust our lives, routines and habits to make the more aggressive species among us comfortable in the gilded squalor of this morally bankrupt society. Those unable to do so migrate.

The conscientious among us reduce our roaming territory to lessen the likelihood of encounters with the potential to end badly. In so doing we cede territory to the lawless in society, giving them a firmer hold over the country.

Citizens at the mercy of gangster culture have little recourse. Law enforcement is either impotent, indifferent, or a defiant hybrid of the two. The police can't deliver justice, and in its absence injustice flourishes.

It's ironic law-enforcement officials can't grasp that the surge in applications for firearms user’s licences is a reflection of their failure to protect citizens from murderers, rapists, bandits and other predators. These elements find protection through inaction – they're emboldened the first time they ask the question, “Whah you go do...beat meh?” and get no answer.

Our environment of permissiveness also makes corruption ubiquitous. Across the public services, bribery and kickbacks are a normal part of doing business. This iniquity and malfeasance in public office without consequence is commonplace at the top. Those occupying ever-shrinking islands of dissent best keep their mouths shut, lest they be swept away by an unrelenting tide of wrongdoing.

As law-abiding citizens continue to adjust their lives – armed to the teeth in the false security of gated enclaves – we imprison ourselves while the inmates roam freely to ravage at their convenience.

Wider society permits the aggression of people who weren't brought up but dragged up. For the ethical and virtuous, our lives are signed over the vermin who govern both in ties and bandanas.