Litter Lout

On my way to the post office after work, I happened to be following someone headed in the same direction. He was walking along at his own pace, eating some crisps, as you might do.

And then, with a quick glance over his shoulder, he just cast the empty crisp packet into the street without even so much as breaking his stride. He just kept bowling down the street.

I found that pretty damned depressing. Whence comes the mindset that allows such behaviour? It's not as if he had never been taught that it was wrong: that over-the-shoulder squint to check if anyone was looking gave away, not a moment of guilt, but a moment of childish behaviour. Checking to see if mum or dad was looking before he did something he shouldn't.

I suppose I should be glad I never opted to go for the police force or something. Surely littering is the least of the sins one could witness every day as part of such a role. I think it would be quite crushing to see the dirty underbelly of humanity.

Which leads me, once again, to those thoughts about the truth vs. comfortable thoughts. I value the truth over comfortable surmising. But people commit daily atrocities much worse than dropping rubbish in the streets. Should you try to put it out of your mind while you can, reasoning that no one can bear the rest of the world's guilt all at once? Or is that denial? At what point do you start dealing with extremes?