On my way to work this morning, I stopped by McDonald’s to order the venerable Extra Value Meal #3. (Although I was tempted by the Sonic Heroes Happy Meals, I resisted that dark urge.) Anyway, it was fairly busy even at 10:30. I thought the person had said “pull around to the first window” through the speaker, but when I got there, the girl inside was occupied, messing with the cash register drawer continuously, in such a way that I couldn’t tell whether she was supposed to be taking my money or not. Meanwhile, the car in front of me had already received its food and driven off. Not wanting to hold up the line, I pulled forward to the second window.
The woman there, with a nametag subtitled “Manager,” handed me my food with a smile and said “Have a nice day!” expecting me to drive off. “Actually,” I said, “I haven’t paid yet. The person at the previous window was busy, and didn’t take my money.”
“Did you have a #3, or a #4?” the manager asked. “#3,” I replied. The manager immediately went bustling off, yelling at the employee, “The #3 guy went right past you!”
Obviously, I could have easily gotten away with a free meal. But stealing just isn’t something I do. It’s easy to say it’s just an internalized norm from my upbringing and society. But from my acceptance of subjective morality I should be able to rationalize driving off with a free meal. The chances of negative consequences would be quite small. Worst-case scenario would have been if the person behind me in line noted that I didn’t pay, remembered my license plate, and told the McDonald’s manager, but somehow I didn’t see that happening. And McDonald’s probably suffers from a number of drive-offs. It’s not like they’re going to go out of business, or even change their policies or prices, as a result of my one infraction.
So I was busy questioning myself for the rest of my drive to work: why did I pay for that meal? Do I actually have a logical reason for it, or is it just an integrated behavior at this point in my life?
For once, I was pleased to come up with the seeds of a rational explanation. It’s why I don’t steal, why I’m nice to people by default, why I don’t litter… it is a variation of the Golden Rule, really (boring and cliche *grumble grumble*), and it comes down to one of my weak tenets, “Hypocrisy is Bad” (which I know I still haven’t posted; I have been working on the list but I want it to be polished before posting it; maybe next post–we’ll see). Anyway, the fewer people who participate in these behaviors (“negative behaviors” for the purposes of this discussion), the more pleasant and happy my general societal experience is. Since I want others to behave in a fashion that is pleasant and happy for me whenever it is not too inconvenient for them , my default behavior will also be to behave according to these rules, unless it is too inconvenient for me.
The inconvenience stipulation is crucial, however. Everyone has their own interests to pursue, and those must come first. There must be a balance, and we should not expect others to bend over backwards for us, because we do not want to obligate ourselves to bending over backwards for them.
All of this hinges on the idea that hypocrisy is bad, which I have trouble justifying. I hope to at least partially vindicate it, though, when I finally post my tenets. Until then, ciao!
“There’s a fine line between fishing and standing on the shore like an idiot.”
--Steven Wright