Jinn

I was inspired by clavus' "shithead" thread (<a href="http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthread.php?t=17030">here</a>) but didn't want to directly derail it with this post. It is a really good thread, and I exemplifies the humanity-centric view of TFP. Can the opposite actually happen too? A shithead moment that makes you an unshithead?

I went to a day-long concert yesterday (Warped Tour) and the line for Will Call tickets was easily two hours long. It was 9 am and already about 90 degrees out. It was so hot that a girl in the line over from us passed out before she even got 50 feet from the counter. There was easily 2,000 people in the Will Call lines, A-D, E-L, M-R and S-Z, and it was easily moving at about 2 feet every 10 minutes. The S-Z line was MUCH shorter, as it is a much less common last name. People were beginning to cut in front of our line (M-R) by walking up the S-Z line and cutting over into ours. There were gaps in the barricades, especially near the booth itself. You couldn't see this happening until you got within sight of the booth, and it started to get epidemic. By now we'd made it within 10 feet of the booth and still being cut in front of by people who had just arrived. We'd been standing in the heat for hours and I'd started to get frustrated as the show had already started, yet we were still in line for tickets. At that moment, a tall lanky kid in white sunglasses and a mini-mohawk walked right past us (saying "excuse me, excuse me" like he had urgent business, from the S-Z line. By the time he got to the front, he started offering people $20 to let him in front of them. The whole "crowd" at the booth refused and he said "whatever" and got in line directly in front of me. There was a middle-aged woman and man behind me, and a few others directly behind them, who saw this as well. They started shouting "Hey buddy.. the line is back here" and "Come on, we've been waiting for TWO HOURS!!" He looked scared, but he turned his back to the crowd and waited for his turn at the booth. People kept shouting "OH COME ON!!!" By the time he got his tickets, the middle aged lady behind me had called a CSC Event Staff person over and said that these people had been cutting and mentioned the tall teenager specifically. She told him exactly what he had done and the men around her agreed. He mumbled for a few into his radio and then told the lady that "I'm sorry about that ma`am" and just walked off. She was notably flustered. When the kid turned around with his tickets, I grabbed him and smashed him across into the S-Z barricade. He definitely got the message that he had been ignoring. The lady smiled and mentioned that she wanted to do the same thing, but felt like she was smaller and would have gotten beat up. The man and the kid behind her also noticed and thanked me for doing so. The original woman told the lady next to her that when the line-cheating teenager had turned around that I "had clocked him one" and she smiled and thanked me.

I'm a usually nonviolent person, but I felt like I was letting the kid know that we didn't appreciate his "I'm better than you and these other people" attitude. As we approached the booth, I moved into the hole into the barricade with my arms crossed so that no others could cheat the system. As I moved even closer, the lady and the man behind her formed up behind me to create the wall. Now only people who had legitimately waited in line could get to the booth. By the time me and my girlfriend got our tickets, there was a literal cheer from the crowd behind me, and I wished them luck with getting theirs.

I got the warm-fuzzy feeling that I had helped these people, even though it took violent means due to the non-action of the "authority".

It is certainly a thin line to walk, but can enforcing obvious laws/expectations on those who would ignore them in the absense of authority be justified? I am certainly NOT advocating random vigilante justice, but you get my drift...

Can you create an unshithead moment in the complete demonstration of shithead?

If so, has anyone else had an opportunity to "protect the innocent" in a situation where "real" authority wasn't present?

__________________
"I'm typing on a computer of science, which is being sent by science wires to a little science server where you can access it. I'm not typing on a computer of philosophy or religion or whatever other thing you think can be used to understand the universe because they're a poor substitute in the role of understanding the universe which exists independent from ourselves." - Willravel