Priority

Published by

Clarissa

October 10, 2013

Human beings are sometimes just too much. We were boarding this tiny airplane, and in front of the queue there was a pole with dividing tape and two signs pointing to a general boarding area and the priority boarding area. There were few passengers and a single flight attendant who stood on the general boarding side of the tape. You can see the whole arrangement on the photo. I was so shocked by what happened next that I had to take a photo.

Priority passengers hesitated for a second and collectively walked down the priority side of the line. This meant that they had to reach across the dividing tape to hand their boarding passes to the flight attendant, causing discomfort to him and to themselves. But it was so crucial to them to walk these 10 feet on the privileged side of the rope that they didn’t mind.

I’ve never paid for priority or first class seating in my life but if I do one day, I really hope I manage to retain enough lucidity to see how ridiculous people look when they begin to care what side of a dividing tape they walk.

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5 responses to “Priority”

Benoni

October 11, 2013

If you put a “males only” sign on an entrance to a building and a “females only” on the only, people will obey and only use the door that matches their gender. Two perfectly functional doors that go to exactly the same place, but there’s some nagging itch that prevents them from using the “wrong door”. There’s just something about humans that makes them want to adhere to order, even when it makes no sense.

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1. cliff arroyo
  
  October 11, 2013
  
  That was my thought too. They might have thought it was dumb but they followed the written instructions (who wants to cause problems in airports these days?)
  
  Before living a number of years in Central-Eastern Europe I might have done the same thing. Now I’d just go to the left side.
  
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2. Stille (@aperfectbalance)
  
  October 15, 2013
  
  Speaking of which, what’s the deal with separate-gender bathrooms. I see people on the Internet throwing hissy fits all the time about scary trans folk in the bathrooms these people think said trans people don’t belong into…. and why the drama, really, past the reason of transphobia? What makes this argument resonate with other people?
  
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  1. bloggerclarissa
    
    October 15, 2013
    
    I also thought this was a non-issue until I witnessed a real and a really huge row about this subject right here on the blog! I could have never imagined this could grow into a very long and very passionate discussion but it did. It turns out bathrooms are spaces of ideological warfare of enormous proportions.
    
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sugs

October 15, 2013

I break the rules all the time, only yesterday I walked in through the exit at my local supermarket! Daring? No, it’s just the shorter route and I’m lazy.

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