Happy & Healthy
Everything is a lie
Close to me there is a traffic light that I pass at least eight times a week. I hate that traffic light because it always takes an eternity before it ever turns green, and it is at an intersection that is completely illogical, so you never know from which direction cars or buses will suddenly appear. Riding through a red light, as a typical Amsterdammer would, is quite inconvenient here.
So every time again I stand there foaming at the mouth with rage because I have to wait for goddamn TEN minutes to cross. Okay, okay, maybe it's five, but still, it's all way too long for me. What is also so inconvenient about the layout of this intersection is that the entire bike path quickly fills up with waiting cyclists, making it impossible for anyone to get past, and everyone is honking and sighing and cursing in frustration. This traffic light brings out the worst in people.
”This traffic light brings out the worst in people”
What brings out the worst in me is firstly that damn waiting, but secondly when someone is standing by the button and doesn’t press it. Just not even once. Yeah, DUH that we are wasting our time here so carelessly, I think then. If I am the Button Chief and there is a long line of cyclists behind me, I always feel a certain sense of responsibility to press the button. So I consciously press it very often so that everyone sees that I am indeed pressing it and that it is certainly not MY fault that we have been waiting here for 17 years. I told this story to someone recently, and they started laughing a bit mockingly and casually mentioned that “those buttons are all fake.”
WHAT?!
Those buttons are fake?! Some time later on Google revealed: yes, really, some buttons are fake. They call them placebo buttons, and they are used in situations where people want control but cannot get it, so they are just told that they have control. Through fake buttons, then. Buttons that, no matter how long and hard you press them, will absolutely not change the situation you are in.
Often these are buttons that used to have a function, but are no longer needed because everything has been automated. But they are still there because people find that comforting; a little control in life. Think of buttons that close the doors of an elevator or open the doors of a subway: there are all kinds of buttons that deceive us day in and day out. Not all of them, of course, but some do, and that is already bad enough.
The next time I stand at that traffic light, what should I do? Press it and look like a fool? Or not press it and then make everyone even more irritated? I CAN'T LIVE WITH THIS KIND OF QUESTIONS. Please send help.
