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-passenger to walk down the middle of the road it also entitled the cab-driver to drive on the pavement, and that 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 into the middle of the road and puts up 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.

 

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 wearing a tall hat, a frock-coat and sandals, 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 eat mustard with my mutton. I may like mustard with my mutton. And you will not ask me whether you may be a Protestant or a Catholic, whether you may marry the dark lady or the fair lady, whether you may prefer Ella Wheeler Wilcox to Wordsworth, or champagne to shandygaff.

 

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 bedroom my family will object, and if I do it out in the streets the neighbours will remind me that my liberty to blow the trombone must not interfere with their liberty to sleep in quiet. There are a lot of people in the world, and I have to accommodate my liberty to their liberties.

We are all liable to forget this, and unfortunately we are much more conscious of the imperfections of others in this respect than of our own.

 

I got into a railway carriage at a country station the other morning and settled down for what the schoolboys would call an hour's "swot" at a Blue-book. I was not reading it for pleasure. The truth is that I never do read Blue-books for pleasure. I read them as a barrister reads a brief, for the very humble purpose of turning an honest penny out of them. Now, if you are reading a book for pleasure it doesn't matter what is going on around you. I think I could enjoy "Tristram Shandy" or "Treasure Island" in the midst of an earthquake.

 

But when you are reading a thing as a task you need reasonable quiet, and that is what I didn't get, for at the next station in came a couple of men, one of whom talked to his friend for the rest of the journey in a loud and pompous voice. He was one of those people who remind one of that story of Home Tooke who, meeting a person of immense swagger in the street, stopped him and said, "Excuse me, sir, but are you someone in particular?" This gentleman was someone in particular. As I wrestled with clauses and sections, his voice rose like a gale, and his family history, the deeds of his sons in the war, and his criticisms of the generals and the politicians submerged my poor attempts to hang on to my job.I shut up the Blue-book, looked out of the window, and listened wearily while the voice thundered on with themes like these: "Now what French ought to have done..." "The mistake the Germans made..." "If only Asquith had..." You know the sort of stuff. I had heard it all before, oh, so often. It was like a barrel-organ groaning out some banal song of long ago.

 

If I had asked him to be good enough to talk in a lower tone I daresay he would have thought I was a very rude fellow. It did not occur to him that anybody could have anything better to do than to listen to him, and I have no doubt he left the carriage convinced that everybody in it had, thanks to him, had a very illuminating journey, and would carry away a pleasing impression of his encyclopædic range. He was obviously a well-intentioned person. The thing that was wrong with him was that he had not the social sense. He was not "a clubbable man."

 

A reasonable consideration for the rights or feelings of others is the foundation of social conduct. It is commonly alleged against women that in this respect they are less civilised than men, and I am bound to confess that in my experience it is the woman—the well-dressed woman—who thrusts herself in front of you at the ticket office.The man would not attempt it, partly because he knows the thing would not be tolerated from him, but also because he has been better drilled in the small give-and-take of social relationships. He has lived more in the broad current of the world, where you have to learn to accommodate yourself to the general standard of conduct, and his school life, his club life, and his games have in this respect given him a training that women are only now beginning to enjoy.

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 boiling up in me which is very like what I felt when Germany came 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 or are you simply a hot gospeller of the prophet Nietzsche? I find myself wondering what sort of a person it is who can sit behind that hog-like outrage without realising that he is the spirit of Prussia incarnate, and a very ugly spectacle in a civilised world.

 

And there is the more harmless person who has bought a very blatant gramophone, and on Sunday afternoon sets the thing going, opens the windows and fills the street with "Keep the Home Fires Burning" or some similar banality. What are the right limits of social behaviour in a matter of this sort? Let us take the trombone as an illustration again. Hazlitt said that a man who wanted to learn that fearsome instrument was entitled to learn it in his own house, even though he was a nuisance to his neighbours, but it was his business to make the nuisance as slight as possible.He must practise in the attic, and shut the window. He had no right to sit in his front room, open the window, and blow his noise into his neighbours' ears with the maximum of violence. And so with the gramophone.If you like the gramophone you are entitled to have it, but you are interfering with the liberties of your neighbours if you don't do what you can to limit the noise to your own household. Your neighbours may not like "Keep the Home Fires Burning." They may prefer to have their Sunday afternoon undisturbed, and it is as great an impertinence for you to willfully trespass on their peace as it would be to go, unasked, into their gardens and trample on their flower beds.

 

There are cases, of course, where the clash of liberties seems to defy compromise. My dear old friend X., who lives in a West End square and who is an amazing mixture of good nature and irascibility, flies into a passion when he hears a street piano, and rushes out to order it away.But nearby lives a distinguished lady of romantic picaresque tastes, who dotes on street pianos, and attracts them as wasps are attracted to a jar of jam. Whose liberty in this case should surrender to the other? For the life of me I cannot say. It is as reasonable to like street pianos as to dislike them—and vice versa. I would give much to hear Sancho Panza's solution of such a nice riddle.

 

I suppose the fact is that we can be neither complete anarchists nor complete Socialists in this complex world—or rather we must be a judicious mixture of both. We have both liberties to preserve—our individual liberty and our social liberty. We must watch the bureaucrat on the one side and warn off the anarchist on the other.I am neither a Marxist, nor a Tolstoyan, but a compromise. I shall not permit any authority to say that my child must go to this school or that, shall specialise in science or arts, shall play rugger or soccer. These things are personal. But if I proceed to say that my child shall have no education at all, that he shall be brought up as a primeval savage, or at Mr. Fagin's academy for pickpockets, then Society will politely but firmly tell me that it has no use for primeval savages and a very stern objection to pickpockets, and that my child must have a certain minimum of education whether I like it or not. I cannot have the liberty to be a nuisance to my neighbours or make my child a burden and a danger to the commonwealth.

 

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 civilised or uncivilised. The great moments of heroism and sacrifice are rare. It is the little habits of commonplace intercourse that make up the great sum of life and sweeten or make bitter the journey.I hope my friend in the railway carriage will reflect on this. Then he will not cease, I am sure, to explain to his neighbour where French went wrong and where the Germans went ditto; but he will do it in a way that will permit me to read my Blue-book undisturbed.

 

EXERCISE:-

1. Answer the following questions in one or two sentences each.

a)        Why did the lady think she was entitled to walk down the middle of the road?

The lady thought she had got liberty to walk down the middle of the road. She thought she was going to  walk where she liked.

b)       What would be the consequence of the old lady’s action?

A great confusion of the traffic would be the consequence of the old lady’s action.

c)        What does the ‘rule of the road’ mean?

The rule of the road means that the liberties of (everyone) all may be maintained and the liberties of everybody must be reduced.

d)       Why should individual liberty be curtailed?

Individual liberty should be curtailed because it may affect public liberty.

e)        How would a reasonable person react when his actions affect other person’s liberty?

When a reasonable person’s actions affect other persons’ liberty, he would have submitted to a curtailment of private liberty in order that he might enjoy the social order.

f)         Define Liberty as perceived by the author.

Liberty is not a personal affair. It is a social commitment. It should not touch the others’ liberty.

g)        According to the author, what are we more conscious of?

According to the author, we are much more conscious of the imperfections of others in this respect than of our own.

h)       What is the foundation of social conduct?

A reasonable consideration for the rights of feelings of others is the foundation of social conduct.

i)          How can we sweeten our life’s journey?

It is the little habits of commonplace intercourse that make up the great sum of life. It sweetens our life’s journey.

j)          What does the traffic policeman symbolize?

The traffic policeman symbolizes public liberty.

 

 

2. Answer the following questions in three or four sentences each.

a)        What is ‘liberty’ according to the old lady?

The old lady thought she had got liberty to walk down the middle of the road. According to her liberty was entitled the pedestrian to walk down the middle of the road. She stressed her personal liberty here.

b)       How would ‘liberty’ cause universal chaos?

An old lady walked down the middle of the road. There was a great confusion of the traffic. She argued that it was her liberty. The end of her liberty would be universal chaos.

c)        Why is there a danger of the world getting ‘liberty drunk’?

There is a danger of the world getting liberty drunk in these days because individual liberty would have become social anarchy such liberty would be universal chaos.

d)       ‘Curtailment of private liberty is done to establish social order’ – Do you agree?

Yes I agree that curtailment of private liberty is done to establish social order as a reasonable person. I would have submitted to a curtailment of private liberty in order that I might enjoy the social order.

 

3. Answer each of the following in a paragraph of 100–150 words.

a)        What do you infer from Gardiner’s essay ‘On the rule of the Road'?

According to Gardiner, “on the rule of the road” means the liberties of everyone may be maintained and the liberties of everybody must be reduced. Individual liberty should be curtailed because it may affect public liberty. When a reasonable person’s actions affect other persons’ liberty, he would have submitted to a curtailment of private liberty in order that he might enjoy the social order. The author says liberty is not a personal affair. It is a social commitment. It should not touch the others’ liberty. We are much more conscious of the imperfections of others in this respect than of our own. A reasonable consideration for the rights of feelings is the foundation of social conduct. It is the little habits of common place intercourse that make up the great sum of life. It sweetens our life journey.

b)       Explain in your own words, "What freedom means?"

The lexical meaning of freedom means independence. It means to act and speak freely. But I think freedom means responsibility. A responsible person never touch others freedom. He only can preserve the social conduct, as Gardiner says freedom is not a personal affair. It is only social contact. It is an accomodation of interests. As there are a lot of people in the world, we have to accommodate our freedom to their freedom.But a common man thinks freedom means just free to do whatever he wants. This approach would produce anarchy. Different people have different opinions about the idea of freedom. All socities define freedom in their own respect. According to me, enjoying our freedom means we have to consider the rights and the feelings of people around us.

c)        "My right to swing my fist ends, where your nose begins." Elucidate with reference to, ‘On the Rule f the Road’.

The pharse ‘my right to swing my fist ends, where your nose begins’ refers to the boundary where one can act but has to stop when it approaches the boundary of another. It is about the demorcation of liberties of an individual to the next individual. We each have our own personal space and there is a boundary. In this essay by A.G.gardiner, it is dealt that personal liberty is not more important than public liberty. Gardiner said that he might like to practise on the trombone from midnight till three in the morning. If he does it on to the top of the Everest, he could please himself. But if he does it out in the streets, the neighbours would fight with him. So his liberty must not interfere with their liberty to sleep in quiet. So it is clear that one’s right should not interfere with another’s right.

 

d)       Civilization can only exist when the public collectively accepts constraints on its freedom of action – Explain.

In ‘on the rule of the road’ Gardiner emphasizes the necessity of certain constraints on individual liberty, if society is to function in a truly civilized manner. According to him, liberty is not a personal affair only, it is also a social contract. A reasonable consideration for the rights of feelings of others is the foundation of social conduct. He also noted that in order that the liberties of all may be preserved, the liberties of everybody must be reduced. Gardiner offers his own illustrations such as the role of police officer in controlling traffic. The police officer’s role imposes constraints on personal freedom. But it ensures public freedom. Thus civilization can only exist, when the public collectively accepts constraints on its freedom of action.

 

ESSAY

❖        Introduction

❖        Author’s illustrations

❖        Rule of the road

❖        Author’s Liberty

❖        Conclusion

Introduction:

In the essay ‘On the rule of the road’ by A.G.Gardiner, the rule of being civilized is discussed.

Author’s illustrations:

The author illustrates the following incidents to insist that public liberty is more important than personal liberty. An old lady walked down the middle of the road. There was a great confusion of the traffic. She argued that it was her liberty. Thus the end of her liberty would be universal chaos. The police officer’s role, who controls the traffic, imposes constraints on personal freedom. But it ensures public freedom. 

Rule of the road:

According to the author, the rule of the road means that the liberties of everyone may be maintained and the liberties of everybody must be reduced. Individual liberty should be curtailed because it may affect public liberty. When a reasonable person’s actions affect other persons’ liberty, he would have submitted to a curtailment of private liberty in order that he might enjoy the social order. The author says liberty is not a personal affair. It is a social commitment. It should not touch the others’ liberty.

Author’s Liberty:

The author said that he might like to practise on the trombone from midnight till three in the morning. If he does it on to the top of the Everest, he could please himself. But if he does it out in the streets, the neighbours would Tight with him. So his liberty must not interfere with their liberty to sleep in quiet. So it is clear that one’s right should not interfere with another’s right.

Conclusion:

A reasonable consideration for the rights of feelings of others is the foundation of social conduct. It is the little habits of commonplace intercourse that make up the great sum of life. It sweetens our life’s journey.

LIBERTY MEANS RESPONSIBILTY

 

                                                                                                   ***exercised by Vikram Mishra