The Shopping Trolley Test
This is my version of a post I read on Social Media this week. To me it says an awful lot about what is wrong with the world in 2020.
The Shopping Trolley is the ultimate litmus test for whether a person is capable of self-governing.
To return a shopping trolley is an easy, convenient task and one which we all recognise as the correct and appropriate thing to do. To return the shopping trolley is objectively right. There are no situations other than dire emergencies in which a person is not able to return their trolley. At the same time, it is not illegal to abandon your trolley wherever is easiest for you. Therefore the shopping trolley presents itself as the apex example of whether a person will do what is right without being forced to do it. No one will punish you, fine you or kill you, for not returning your trolley, and you gain nothing by returning the trolley. You must return the trolley out of the goodness of your own heart, with no reward, because it is the right thing to do, the correct thing to do.
I have heard, in jest, that if we do this then the trolley boy will be out of a job. No. This is just an excuse for being lazy. There will be other work for him. The time he loses chasing down your trolley can be spent in more meaningful ways that may improve his life.
The problem is our “Rights” have become more important than our “Responsibilities”.
Can you simply do the right thing when no one is watching?
