AUTHORITY.

The local government in my area have put up signs which say: “Warning. Don’t drop litter. You will be fined. XXX City/District Council.”

I have seen similar signs in the past put up by other local government agencies which are more modest saying something like: “if caught littering you will be fined”. But these new signs right here express a confidence in the outcome that struck me as ridiculously presumptuous. “You WILL be fined” they say. Like it’s a guarantee. If you drop litter then you WILL be fined. As surely as night follows day.

Of course I easily demonstrated the falsity of their claim by dropping a small piece of litter directly under the sign. It has been a few days and so far I have not yet been fined.

I should add that it was not an easy thing for me to do. I have a deep aversion to the act of dropping litter which I had to overcome. I made it easier by first picking up some pre-existing litter. So that even though I dropped some the net effect of my actions was not any more litter on the ground. In fact I picked up a lot more than I dropped. The litter I dropped was a small piece of paper folded over twice so it was about the size of a postage stamp. I helpfully wrote “this is litter” on it in case of doubt.

I have no problem with the zero tolerance attitude expressed by the messages on these litter signs. But they shouldn’t make a threat they can’t follow up on. They make the same mistake as parents who make idle threats against their children. “If you don’t be quiet then you’ll get no sweets” the parent will say but then they fail to follow through when the child persists in their racket. Which increases the likelihood of the child failing to obey in future. It’s an inept exercise of authority. Authority is too dangerous a force to be exercised ineptly. It should be used well or not at all.

[29 March 2014]