Literally just as I was finishing writing up this post, I heard a commotion outside my house (in San Francisco). A homeless-looking man was yelling and throwing an electric guitar down the road. Apparently this had been going on for 5-10 minutes already. I sat in my window and watched for a few minutes; during that time, he stopped a car by standing in front of it and yelling. He also threw his guitar in the vicinity of several passers-by, including some old people and a mother cycling past with her kid.
There was a small gathering (of 5-10 people) at my house at this time. They were mostly ignoring it. I felt like this was wrong, and was slowly gathering up willpower to intervene. In hindsight I moved slowly because I was worried that a) he’d hit me with his guitar if I did, or b) he’d see which house I came out from and try to smash my windows or similar. But I wasn’t very worried, because I knew I could bring a few friends out with me.
Before I ended up doing anything, though, a man stopped his car and started yelling at the homeless guy quite aggressively, things like “Get the fuck out of here!” I immediately went outside to offer support in case the homeless guy got aggressive, but he didn’t need it; the homeless guy was already grabbing his stuff. He was somewhat apologetic but still kinda defensive (saying things like “it’s not my fault, man, it’s society”). At one point he turned to my friend and asked “were you bothered?” and my friend said “it was a bit loud”.
As he left, he picked up his guitar again. The man who’d stopped turned around and yelled “Leave that guitar!” The homeless guy threw it again, the man ran over to pick it up, and then the homeless guy left. A few minutes later, two police cars pulled up—apparently someone else had called them.
Overall it was an excellent illustration of why virtue ethics is important. We should have confronted him as soon as we’d noticed him causing a ruckus, both so that (much more defenseless) passers-by didn’t need to worry, and to preemptively prevent any escalation from him. But small niggles about him escalating meant that our fear ended up winning out, and made San Francisco a slightly less safe place. Even on the small things—like responding “it was a bit loud” instead of “you were being an asshole, quit scaring people”—it’s very easy to instinctively flinch away from taking appropriate action. To avoid that, cultivating courage and honesty seems crucial.
Literally just as I was finishing writing up this post, I heard a commotion outside my house (in San Francisco). A homeless-looking man was yelling and throwing an electric guitar down the road. Apparently this had been going on for 5-10 minutes already. I sat in my window and watched for a few minutes; during that time, he stopped a car by standing in front of it and yelling. He also threw his guitar in the vicinity of several passers-by, including some old people and a mother cycling past with her kid.
There was a small gathering (of 5-10 people) at my house at this time. They were mostly ignoring it. I felt like this was wrong, and was slowly gathering up willpower to intervene. In hindsight I moved slowly because I was worried that a) he’d hit me with his guitar if I did, or b) he’d see which house I came out from and try to smash my windows or similar. But I wasn’t very worried, because I knew I could bring a few friends out with me.
Before I ended up doing anything, though, a man stopped his car and started yelling at the homeless guy quite aggressively, things like “Get the fuck out of here!” I immediately went outside to offer support in case the homeless guy got aggressive, but he didn’t need it; the homeless guy was already grabbing his stuff. He was somewhat apologetic but still kinda defensive (saying things like “it’s not my fault, man, it’s society”). At one point he turned to my friend and asked “were you bothered?” and my friend said “it was a bit loud”.
As he left, he picked up his guitar again. The man who’d stopped turned around and yelled “Leave that guitar!” The homeless guy threw it again, the man ran over to pick it up, and then the homeless guy left. A few minutes later, two police cars pulled up—apparently someone else had called them.
Overall it was an excellent illustration of why virtue ethics is important. We should have confronted him as soon as we’d noticed him causing a ruckus, both so that (much more defenseless) passers-by didn’t need to worry, and to preemptively prevent any escalation from him. But small niggles about him escalating meant that our fear ended up winning out, and made San Francisco a slightly less safe place. Even on the small things—like responding “it was a bit loud” instead of “you were being an asshole, quit scaring people”—it’s very easy to instinctively flinch away from taking appropriate action. To avoid that, cultivating courage and honesty seems crucial.