On The Rule of The Road - A.G. Gardiner

On The Rule Of The Road – A.G.
Gardiner
A stout old lady was walking with her basket down the middle
of a street in Petrograd to the great confusion of the traffic and
with no small peril to herself. It was pointed out to her that the
pavement was the place for foot- passengers, but she replied;
I’m going to walk where I like. We’ve got liberty now. It did not
occur to the dear old lady that if liberty entitled the foot
passengers to walk down the middle of the road, then the end
of such liberty would be universal chaos. Everybody would be
getting in everybody else’s way and nobody would get
anywhere. Individual liberty would have become social anarchy.
There is a danger of the world getting liberty – drunk in these
days, like the old lady with the basket, and it is just as well to
remind ourselves of what the rule of the road means. It means
that in order that the liberties of all may be preserved; the
liberties of everybody must be curtailed. When the policeman,
say, at Piccadilly Circus steps in the middle of the road and puts
out his hand, he is the symbol not of tyranny, but of liberty. You
may not think so. You may, being in a hurry, and seeing your
motor – car pulled up by this insolence of office, feel that your
liberty has been outraged. How dare this fellow interfere with
your free use of the public highway? Then, if you are a
reasonable person, you will reflect that if he did not,
incidentally, interfere with you, he would interfere with no one,
and the result would be that Piccadilly Circus would be a
maelstrom that you would never cross at all. You have
submitted to a curtailment of private liberty in order that you
may enjoy a social order which makes your liberty a reality.
How can we preserve the liberties of all?
Liberty is not a personal affair only, but a social contract. It is an
accommodation of interests. In matters which do not touch
anybody else’s liberty, of course. I may be as free as I like. If I
choose to go down the Strand in a dressing – gown, with long
hair and bare feet, who shall say me nay? You have liberty to
laugh at me, but I have liberty to be indifferent to you. And if I
have a fancy for dyeing my hair, or waxing my moustache
(which heaven forbid) or going to bed late or getting up early, I
shall follow my fancy and ask no man’s permission. I shall not
inquire of you whether I may mutton. And you will not ask me
whether you may follow this religion or that, whether you may
marry the dark lady or fair lady.
In all these and a thousand other details you and I please
ourselves and ask no one’s leave. We have a whole kingdom, in
which we rule alone, can do what we choose, be wise or
ridiculous, harsh or easy, conventional or odd. But directly we
step out of that kingdom, our personal liberty of action
becomes qualified by other people’s liberty. I might like to
practice on the trombone from midnight till three in the
morning. If I went on to the top of Helvellyn to do it, I could
please myself, but if I do it in my bed room my family will
object, and if I do it out in the streets the neighbors will remind
me that my liberty to blow the trombone must not interfere
with their liberty to sleep in quiet. There are lots of people in
the world, and I have to accommodate my liberty to their
liberties.
What is liberty?
We are all liable to forget this, and unfortunately we are much
more conscious of the imperfection of others in this respect
than our own. A reasonable consideration for the fights or
feelings of others is the foundation of social conduct.
I believe that the rights of small people and quiet people are as
important to preserve as the rights of small nationalities. When
I hear the aggressive, bullying horn which some motorists
deliberately use, I confess that I feel something billing up in me
which is very like what I felt when Germany cam trampling like
a bully over Belgium. By what right, my dear sir do you go along
our highways uttering that hideous curse on all who impede
your path? Cannot you announce your coming like a
gentleman? Cannot you take your turn? Are you someone in
particular? I find myself wondering what sort of person it is
who can sit behind that hot- like outrage without realizing that
he is the spirit of Prussia incarnate, and a very ugly spectacle in
a civilized world.
It is in the small matters of conduct, in the
observance of the rule of the road, that we pass judgment upon
ourselves, and declare that we are civilized or uncivilized. The
great moments of heroism and sacrifice are rare. It is the little
habits of common place intercourse that make up the great
sum of life and sweeten or make bitter the journey.

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