Traffic and the inner life.

Very interesting thing about Bangkok (I spent the last few weeks visiting relatives in Thailand). The driving is just as terrible as in any major city, maybe worse. People come at you from all directions, cut in, switch out, don’t signal, the works. I couldn’t help feeling that if such things happened in London, say, there would be blood on the streets. In Bangkok there doesn’t seem to be road rage. People don’t get angry, they just don’t let it get to them. Cutting in front of someone is not taken as an insult, just a way of getting to work. So the traffic is frantic but good natured. No doubt this is a simplification (occasionally, I have been told, someone may pull a gun) but on the whole everyone seems to drive with maximum assertion but without aggression.

It’s tempting to suggest that this has something to do with the Buddhist background of the country, emphasizing peace of mind and transience, even to contrast that with a Western background emphasizing guilt, sin and blame. I’m sure this is far too simplistic, although I am convinced background supernatural beliefs do play a part in driving attitudes. I still remember a white knuckle ride through Cairo traffic over 20 years ago which my host explained as an example of perfect faith on the part of our local driver. He felt that his fate was in God’s hands and he would either be safe or die according to divine will, not according to his driving. But it’s obviously a major cultural difference, which makes two points very well. First, that people have a choice as to how they take things. Second, that how they actually do take things has a lot to do with the stories they tell themselves about what is happening. These stories are more often than not absorbed from our cultural background. But they don’t have to be. We can choose our own stories once we become aware of our own assumptions. Thus we can change our attitudes, and then our feelings, our actions and thus our lives.