The Dystopian Times 28. Who's First?

Sometimes you open up the online newspaper and you read the zaniest things. What kind of people are we surrounded with? When standing in a queue provokes a fight, you know there's a special shade of crazy tinting some people.

I went to the supermarkets at Boiro this morning, to get the ingredients for a special dinner tonight. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary, but apparently, a fight broke out and spilled out into the street over who was first in line at the counter.

Not all checkout counters are open in each store at all times. Maybe there are three or four, even five, but the only time they are all manned is during special shopping seasons, such as the day before Christmas, when everyone has something special left to buy for Christmas Eve dinner. 

So, if a line begins to snake into the aisles, an employee will be called to open another counter. When that happens, people are supposed to queue up at it in the order they were at the other one. Sometimes, it happens that I am too slow, and someone behind me will step in front of me. I complain, and sometimes they step back, sometimes they claim they're running late for whatever. Once or twice, they will outright lie and say they were first, but that I cut in. When they lie, I look at their tiny faces and feel like bashing in their noses. Of course, I don't, but I do wish that the powers that be, if any exist, make the rest of their day a living hell. 

It seems that this morning, a checkout line opened up, and two people went at the same time, both claiming they were first. Neither would concede to the other and the discussion grew to new heights, with insults, then shoves, and, finally, both put their hands on each other, and stumbled out the door into the street, practicing their boxing and wrestling moves at the same time. The police were called in, as were the Guardia Civil, and the two were placed in their respective corners. It didn't quite end there, because both decided to press charges against the other, probably for assault and battery, though the newspaper doesn't say.

I've seen little old ladies with a week's worth of groceries plead to go before someone because they "were going to miss the bus," and then see them, a half hour later, chatting with a friend in a street nearby. I've seen a tourist from Madrid leave an item at the top of the counter, and go into the aisles. As the person who was before him paid and was about to leave, the person who was behind started putting their items on the conveyer belt. At that point, the tourist came back and said he was first, that he had kept his spot by putting that item in that place. I suppose that if he had spent fifteen minutes searching in the aisles, everyone would have had to wait for him, following that logic. I've seen arguments over who was first when another checkout counter opened, but that merely ended in thrown insults as one of the parties desisted. But I've yet to see a fist fight. 

Standing in line at the supermarket checkout shows that our civilization seems to be merely a thin veneer.

Life continues.