Berlin bike-riders and pedestrians wait for cross-signals to change here, even when there's clearly no cars coming. So you just sit there on your bike, or on foot, watching the little red signal while the crosswalk stands there safe and empty in front of you. Not everyone, but a pretty clear majority, I think. Amy has said that people have yelled at her for crossing against the signal, especially when there are children around. It's completely unlike New York, where you're pushed into the street if no cars are coming, regardless of what the crossing signal says.
Since my street manners are all heavily New York-trained, I've been finding this irritating. But I also wonder if I have some moral obligation to do as the Berliners do while in Berlin (prompted by reading over Martin Ebeling's master's thesis about political legitimacy, which he was nice enough to let me look at).
Here's what seems to be a fairly plausible argument for me waiting at the stupid signals (based pretty directly on stuff I learned from Martin's thesis): if you respect someone, and you think her opinion about what people should do in a certain context is probably as reasonable as yours, then her opinion should exert some pull on you. That's supposed to be a mostly definitional truth about what it is to respect someone. Now, if there are multiple people whom you respect, and they disagree among themselves, then you should feel more pulled towards the opinion that's held most strongly by the group (in cases where they all feel equally strongly about it, that'll be the majority opinion, if there is one).
If we add to those assumptions the further claims that (1) there is a basic moral obligation to respect other people, that (2) the majority of people who do have an opinion about Berlin street-crossing think everyone should wait for the signal, and that (3) I don't have any good grounds for thinking these people are less reasonable than I am, then we get the conclusion that I'm morally compelled to at least feel resistance to crossing against the signal.
For any argument of this kind, it seems like the most tempting premise to deny is (3), since it's easy for all of us to think that other people are less reasonable, but I'm not sure if I have good grounds for that.
Thoughts, anyone? I'd really like to feel free to cross the stupid streets without feeling guilty.
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In sociology, we talk a lot about social norms and the process by which they work to control people's behavior. What you refer to as feeling resistance, others call "secondary deviance" (whereby you see yourself as violating a social norm and being deviant; primary deviance is the doing of a deviant act, only known through the reactions of those around you, such as stares; secondary deviance can occur without primary deviance, such as in your example above!). Scheff theorizes that shame is the emotion of the social bond. Your feeling of guilt, then, for crossing against the light, demonstrates the power of aversion to shame and the desire to maintain a level of civil social bonds, even in the gesellschaft mecca of Berlin.
ReplyDeleteOn a less academic level, I think you pretty much have two options:
1. When in Berlin, do as Berliners (though not diesen Berliners, you're not a pastry)
2. When in Berlin, be an ugly American and do whatever you feel like. However, my experiences of going to school in the American South informed me that doing as a New Yorker outside of New York typically results in a lot of social sanctions, usually in the negative.
I can see shame being a social-bonding emotion (though doesn't every emotion have some bonding potential?). Still, some instances of shame seem morally unjustified (e.g. I feel a little ashamed when I'm walking down the street, realize I'm going the wrong way, and then turn around when others are looking), and others do seem morally justified (e.g. the shame I feel when I realize that I was being inconsiderate). And I'm not sure which category the shame I might feel crossing against the signal here falls into.
ReplyDeleteThe real test case is when I'm on my bike amongst a bunch of pedestrians - where I know that I can get away with it, and where I know that I'll be gone before anyone can say anything or chastise me (they might yell something, but my German is still bad enough that I probably wouldn't even know they were yelling at me). In a case like that, should I feel compelled to wait for the signal?
There also seems to be a much more practical component to this whole issue - you said that part of the reason people yelled was because of children being around. It seems that that in itself - being a good model for kids - should be a reason to wait for the light (I've seen that here too - where a mom is waiting with a kid for the cross signal and then i feel guilty for jaywalking in front of them, because clearly she's trying to teach her kid to wait for the signal). But, then the question remains, what if there are no children around? (Maybe you can assume that there is always the potential that a child might come by and therefore you always have to be prepared to be a model for that child).
ReplyDeleteThose potential children can be a real pain in the neck. But it's also true that frustrating a mother's intentions to teach her children how to cross the street is bad... hmm.
ReplyDeleteBut do the the little flashy men on the street walk lights still have funny hats? This should probably be considered a plus. I mean, if you have to stand and wait, it might as well be for a man with a silly hat.
ReplyDeleteYes! They still have funny hats, whether they're walking or standing still.
ReplyDeleteAnd that definitely helps. I sort of wish that the traffic lights had little men with hats in green and red cars.