The eye contact scenario refined:
Maintaining eye contact with a "road rager" while driving would be unwise from a number of perspectives.
Employing discreet eye contact, if one encounters a rager while driving (as a component of self preservation) is quite another...
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Return to “Road rager on Beltway 8”
- Wed Jul 15, 2009 4:24 pm
- Forum: Never Again!!
- Topic: Road rager on Beltway 8
- Replies: 84
- Views: 11990
- Wed Jul 15, 2009 12:18 pm
- Forum: Never Again!!
- Topic: Road rager on Beltway 8
- Replies: 84
- Views: 11990
Re: Road rager on Beltway 8
Avoiding eye contact is a variation on "hear no evil, see no evil " etc. This sort of passivity can work against you.
Years ago I worked in downtown Houston. I liked to eat at some of the places close to market square. Invariably, on my way to one of these restaurants, some pan handler would accost me if I didn't meet him eye to eye. I could always spot them coming my way. I'm sure they reasoned I must be a soft touch given I wear a suit and tie. Certainly, "laser eyed" contact didn't always prevent them from begging, but act even slightly intimidated by avoiding eye contact and they just might put their hands on you.
As evidence of this: On our way to lunch one day, a pan handler demanded fifty cents, yep, an exact amount, from my co-worker. We'd been so embroiled in our conversation we hadn't noticed this bit of flotsam sidle up to us. We were startled into stopping and the bum loudly repeated his demand and put his hand on my lunch mate's shoulder, whereupon said lunch mate decked him with a punch so fast and devastating the bum landed on his behind in the gutter. I was shocked. This guy is of slight build, mild mannered, (I'd never heard him raise his voice in three years of knowing him) and a CPA. Turns out he'd been a boxer in college.
No eye contact also applies to bullies I have known too...Look at the ground when they approach and they interpret that as cowering in their presence. There is a difference between escalating and simply standing up for yourself.
Knowing one from the other is the key.
Years ago I worked in downtown Houston. I liked to eat at some of the places close to market square. Invariably, on my way to one of these restaurants, some pan handler would accost me if I didn't meet him eye to eye. I could always spot them coming my way. I'm sure they reasoned I must be a soft touch given I wear a suit and tie. Certainly, "laser eyed" contact didn't always prevent them from begging, but act even slightly intimidated by avoiding eye contact and they just might put their hands on you.
As evidence of this: On our way to lunch one day, a pan handler demanded fifty cents, yep, an exact amount, from my co-worker. We'd been so embroiled in our conversation we hadn't noticed this bit of flotsam sidle up to us. We were startled into stopping and the bum loudly repeated his demand and put his hand on my lunch mate's shoulder, whereupon said lunch mate decked him with a punch so fast and devastating the bum landed on his behind in the gutter. I was shocked. This guy is of slight build, mild mannered, (I'd never heard him raise his voice in three years of knowing him) and a CPA. Turns out he'd been a boxer in college.
No eye contact also applies to bullies I have known too...Look at the ground when they approach and they interpret that as cowering in their presence. There is a difference between escalating and simply standing up for yourself.
Knowing one from the other is the key.