I sure hope that the fifteen year old I was talking to today about tailgating is not the usual teenager. He believes that tailgating should not be an offense and should not require a fine or any kind of punishment. Nothing could change his stance, not even when presented with the mechanism of how tailgating increases one's risk of having a collision, even when presented with the statistics of road accidents involving tailgating and aggressive driving in general. One might think that this intelligent lad must have pretty good arguments behind his opinion, but no. His exact words were: "If you're going to have an accident, there's nothing you can do to stop it. It's destiny."
So I am going to smoke and drink and take drugs. It's not going to kill me until I am "meant" to die.
He is so going to fail his driving test.
It worries me that if he is among the best students in his school (at least according to his marks), and if he is of above average intelligence, what worse things could go on in the presumably lesser able minds of the rest of the youth? If this fifteen year old with an attitude is representative of top students of today, or at least the average students of today, then the future does look less and less safer every day.
That same young man was the one who quipped that it must have only been a coincidence that prayer didn't show to have any effect in several scientific studies. And he is supposed to understand the scientific method and double blind testing - he does research and joins high school science fairs. Fifteen years old and already bigoted. Fifteen years old and already condones and tries to justify risky behavior. I swear not to let that happen to my future children.
