.png)
Cartoon of infuriated driver yelling at cars trying to chisel their way in front of him. Child in back seat wears headphones to tune it all out. Illustration by @sammetzlerart -
When I was younger, my dad would drive me and my sisters to school. Our school was big, so there was always traffic in the morning. If you showed up before 7 AM you missed the worst of it. After 7 and you might miss the start of your first class. Naturally, some days we got caught in the line.
The school’s location made it so that most people came in from one direction. Almost everyone had to turn right to get in, so that lane was bumper to bumper while the left lane was basically empty. Every morning there would be a few cars that would speed through the open lane waiting for their chance to cut in. My dad had a name for these people: “chiselers.” Oh, YOU don’t have to wait in line?! he’d yell. He HATED chiselers.
To prevent chiselers from cutting in, my dad’s strategy was to maintain a distance of no more than 3 inches from the car in front of us. This led to some of the slowest games of chicken of all time. My dad’s mood, his entire day, hinged on defeating the chiselers. If he kept them out, it was going to be a good day. If the chiseler succeeded, there’d be uncomfortable silence for the rest of the ride.
Why do these kinds of situations bother us so much? For one thing, we are very good at keeping tabs on those who attempt to take advantage of us. My mother can recall every single cashier that ever gave her the wrong amount of change or “forgot” to honor her coupon. It’s all part of our innate sense of justice, which I write about in more detail here.
But chiseling is about much more than justice. It’s also related to another triggering issue. A scene from one of my favorite shows, “Seinfeld,” illustrates this perfectly. The character George Costanza is waiting to use the pay phone in a restaurant (it was the ‘90s). Distracted for a moment, George sees that a woman has stolen his place in line. Furious, he shouts, “You know we’re living in a SOCIETY; we’re supposed to act in a CIVILIZED way!”
The woman, like the chiseler, had disregarded the rules. Both George and my dad understood that if the offenders were allowed to get away with it without any repercussions, it would disrupt the natural order of things. It’s a short leap from line-cutting to anarchy.
It’s easy to write these off as isolated or minor incidents, or to see George and my father as being too uptight. But we shouldn’t dismiss them so quickly. If society is our collective attempt to bring people together, then how well it functions depends on how we address the question: “What if everyone acted like this?” If one person breaks a rule it’s a problem, if everyone does, it’s chaos.
This is why we need (and want) consequences. Even small acts like beeping, glaring, or shouting can be effective at maintaining an orderly society. Without them, people will try to take advantage. From a political standpoint, conservatives tend to be very aware of this and much more comfortable handing out punishment. This might explain why my conservative father took it upon himself to uphold the (unwritten) rules of traffic or why conservatives have more favorable views of cops. They know that order is hard to achieve, and easy to lose.
Because conservatives are generally quite sensitive to disorder, they can be a sort of canary in the coal mine for various types of violations. Many were among the first to point out rising crime in cities and spikes in illegal border crossings. For liberals, it seems to take a bit more disruption before they’re convinced that there’s actually a problem. Are the homeless really bothering anyone? What starts as compassion for a few vulnerable people devolves into entire city-blocks filled with tents and trash—sidewalks no longer fit for walking, used needles scattered throughout public parks. Many liberals are starting to recognize that this lenience can go too far. The election of former policeman Eric Adams in NY, the rise of Paul Vallas in Chicago, along with recent victories in San Francisco’s special elections, suggests some Dems have reached a tipping point, desiring more balance between empathy and order.
Attempts to create an orderly society can, of course, also go too far. Like when Trump uses his authority to encourage violence against protesters at his rallies. Certain (authoritarian) personality types are especially willing to comply with these requests (I highly recommend Karen Stenner’s work to learn more). It may be that the desire for order is what allowed many conservatives to look the other way when it came to Trump’s strongman routine. However, this lenience on the Right reached its own tipping point on January 6th, when many conservatives were appalled at the blatant disregard for law and order.
Whether you identify as Right or Left, a well-functioning society is all of our concern. The second law of thermodynamics suggests that it’s far easier to sew chaos than it is to create and maintain order. All it takes is one car to cause a massive pile up on the highway. For traffic to flow, hundreds of cars must simultaneously obey the rules together. For society to function—to be cohesive, orderly, safe—it takes all of us doing the right thing over and over again. Part of that is following rules, part of it is holding each other accountable. I guess what I’m saying is: Don’t be a chiseler. And don’t be afraid to channel your inner George Costanza.
