Proportional Response Thinking

Excess is not always a good thing.

Hypothetical Scenarios that are less extreme are useful.

Imagine I park my car somewhere. I park it in the same place for a year.

Now imagine one day I get my tires slit so I can’t move. Yet I don’t know by who, and there is no surveillance camera on my car. Potentially just a one off problem, so I get my tires fixed and then park there again.

A few days later the tires are slit again. The problem is now a financial problem as well as a logistical problem (I can’t see who is doing it when and factors into decreased mobility that might endanger my life). I still don’t know who is responsible, yet not acting has the potential for dangerous, unwise.

The person slitting my tired might have saved me from a traffic accident. Extra walking and exercise is far from a guarantee. Learning anger management techniques is valuable not always ideally turned up. All this said I have potential to turn a loss into a win win does not equate to unrealistic optimism in the face of problems has no potential for dangers. Imagine the second time the tires are slit I am left outside without my coat in freezing weather.

What is the correct response? Maybe someone just wants my parking spot, better to park somewhere else – I make mistakes, I don’t always perceive, comprehend, or factor in all relevant data. Solving the problem, solving a problem that does not create more problems is valuable, not a given.

Imagine I put up a security camera, put new tires on and put a giant gold license plate on the back of my car. I capitalize on the idea that maybe someone is dealing with envy, might be provoked by excess. A couple days go by, people that are likely not strange that have seen the car might look at me in a different light. Imagine the tires are cut again.

Now I have a security tape of the person involved, there is also possibility for non-null gossip, gossip that might reveal the original party. Now imagine the man is someone that is going through a hard time in life, passed over time and time again for promotions, potentially just got diagnosed with cancer and feels like he’s fucked just wants to get back at life, and decided the new car in front of him was a vent.

My goal is to stop having my tires slit, to no longer have my safety threatened, no longer have others intimidate me. My goal is not to have someone who just got diagnosed with cancer’s life ruined.

If I were to immediately have acted out, started accusing people I thought were responsible. Throwing up walls and divides in communications, I might have given the bad part of that person with cancer (the envy and wrath) fuel to the fire. It is possible to non-ideally reinforce a problem, problems for society via non-proportional responses.

A security camera does not guarantee I will get the right person responsible. It might reinforce less than sufficient bias, reinforce systems that might reinforce less than sufficient bias in other scenarios – works without oppression for me does not guarantee will work without oppression for others. Less tires slit in the first place, less problems coming from unknown enemies is valuable, could be more ideally turned up.

Problem solved are valuable and necessary, yet perception and comprehension that leads to data required for problems solved amplifies far less than ideally by default. One that acts based upon anger or rage, in the heat of the moment will not always factor in all relevant data and information. It is possible to fall into traps, and entrapment might be the original goal is hard to fully ponder when angry.

The less proportional the response, the greater the potential for side effects. When angry, one might not think the side effects are costly. People provoked less is valuable – factors into trust. Trust is valuable, valuable for things like supply lines. If I order something and don’t get it on the common I might not trust, might not encourage others to trust and that is consequential. If I don’t trust, I might just park in another place, and someone else might park there. Problem solved not really solved is common.

Imagine someone you have never met is currently on the streets. God knows this person is going to be critical to your success in life. Now imagine someone else has had trust reinforced, that the system will do right by them. They tell this person the location of a food kitchen, and they are saved to meet you in the future. Now imagine another person, who went to many food kitchens and were rejected, felt like their life was set to a joke, what will they tell the person on the street, or will they just feel helpless and say nothing?

Leave a comment