Thoughts on the row-hoppers

A while back, my sister and I went out to one of the local u-picks just outside Toronto where for $70 and 2 hours of work we came home with 50 pints of locally grown strawberries. It was a great day, with a warm sun and lots of people around us picking away, marred only by a few row-hoppers. Row-hoppers are people that would jump into your assigned row ahead of you and high-grade out all the best strawberries for themselves. I wasn't that bothered - we were going to jam and freeze these strawberries anyway and we didn't need "perfect" berries for this purpose. But the whole event caused me to start thinking.

I decided that this behaviour is a sign of one of the fundamental aspects of Human Nature - the concept of "me first". This is the same driving force behind SUV's, monster homes, and the breaking of no-lawn-watering bylaws (I've heard that one well-to-do house in the States ran up over $30,000 in fines for watering his lawn every day during a water shortage). I don't believe people like this misunderstand the rules (although I suspect SOME of them do), its that they believe the rules simply don't apply to them or are arbitrary. Arbitrary in the sense that consequences do not affect them directly, as with green-house gas emissions and environmental awareness. From my Human Factors studies, I've learned that the human psyche is most responsive to immediate feedback for actions. Those that have immediate negative consequences are much less likely to be repeated. Generally speaking, there is a lack of immediate feedback between our decisions and there consequences.

This led me to the question, can we re-engineer our societal rules such that decisions with negative impacts on health, ethics and the environment have immediate consequences? How do we police it? And how can we monitor everyone's actions at all times? Obviously, this cannot be done through legislation - we likely already have too many laws. And having a Orwellian "Big Brother" society only generates mistrust and anger (hear that Mr Bush?). Also, most fines are easily paid by the law-brakers (case in point - the no-lawn-watering violaters) and can be absorbed as the cost of living the lifestyle. The only method to ensure compliance with such laws is through public opinion. Much like those who smoke have been ostracized and banned to the outdoors through the force of public opinion. It's now socially unacceptable to smoke, and everywhere you go, you'll find guilty-looking cigarette puffers clustered into little groups for mutual support while they feed their habit. We need to start the same process for those that buy SUVs when they don't need them, or who feel that monster homes are a right, or are wasteful of resources. It should be socially unacceptable to be environmentally unfriendly. With the application of social pressure, plus education to show a different way of life, we can change the mind of most of these individuals (there are always die-hards and the rebellious) in ways that mere laws and fines will not reach. So glare at an SUV today!