What I said is what I meant. The problem from the SLN point of view is the situation has changed, and they don't realize how drastically it has changed.
No, the gorilla doesn't realize how the traffic patterns have changed, he's a gorilla. He's also an irresponsible driver driving w/o a license because of so many infractions accumulated over the centuries. He speeds down every road ignoring every yield sign in sight. He's a gorilla with a badge and he's been policing the Hwys for centuries. When he wants to speed, he just turns on his siren, places a light atop his cruisers and hauls ass through every stoplight until he gets to where he's going, ready to draw his weapon and shoot first, w/o asking questions.
'Taint nothing changed about the gorilla with a badge or his MO for centuries.
Or his perceived license to kill. He's been illegally weaving in and out of traffic for centuries and Beowulf has been tailgating him all the while. So she knows. She knows. But she hasn't yet learned that tailgating is unsafe. Drop back, give the idiot a wide birth. The gorilla has a skull and cross bones painted on his truck in a Death Race 2000 just looking for someone's ass to run over for points! Can't say it enough, that's his MO. But then, who is the most looney, the gorilla? Or a high strung gf out for a stroll in a sedan, running away from her road raging husband who doesn't even see her on the highway until she makes a dangerous U-turn and decides to take him on - head on! A sedan playing chicken on the highway with a tractor and trailer simply because it isn't loaded?
"Na na na na na naaaa. I got a new boyyyyyy friend." Knowing full-well her new bf isn't going to be with her at all times. He's got work to do.
To use your driver's education analog, and applying a rule that I learned in driver's education: The lug nut rule--the vehicle with the most lug nuts will win (suffer less damage, not have the driver or passengers killed or injured--or at least suffer much less severe injuries) in a collision with a vehicle with fewer lug nuts.
Problem Beowulf. The SLN has more lug nuts and NUTS than
they do. Which is why Beowulf ends up with 20M dead.
Now, her mad as hell bf has more lug nuts and will win
his sortie against the gorilla, but it ain't gonna matter one bit, to the 20M little red headed step chullin chillin on ice, kids of hers dead.
Essentially the situation you are analogizing is Beowulf (as a sedan passenger vehicle) was on a road approaching a cross traffic intersection with two roads intersecting at 90 degrees with a green traffic light. The SLN (as a fully loaded tractor trailer) approaching the same intersection with a red light on the other road, but is refusing to obey the red light and stop at the intersection until the light goes green. Beowulf can see the 80,000 pound SLN truck approaching the intersection and if they attempt to go through on the green light, they know they will be run over by the SLN running the red light and be killed in the collision.
The problem I don't think you are seeing, and the problem the SLN definitely isn't seeing, is the situation is no longer the same as it was for hundreds of years previously.
Of course
I see it. How can a reader
not see it?
Correct, the SLN does NOT see it. But Beowulf
knows the Gorilla doesn't see it. That fact is part of the reason Beowulf should have confronted the Mandarins in public. Beowulf also knows the SLN does NOT see the traffic light, or rather Beowulf knows full-well the SLN is in the habit of running red lights. The Gorilla has been color blind for centuries. So, it's a perfect opportunity for Beowulf to drive
for the other idiot on the hwy too. In a safe manner that doesn't cost her lives.
The SLN is still driving the truck, but the truck is now empty, a hollow shell that no longer weighs 80,000 pounds, but only 20,000 pounds.
An empty 20,000 pound rig will still tear the hell out of a sedan.
Beowulf is still in the sedan, but is no longer driving on the road. Instead the sedan is loaded on the Grand Alliance freight train (on an automotive traincar carrier) with ten 200 ton locomotives and one hundred full ore cars weighing 300,000 pounds each moving down the railroad tracks that run parallel to the road (that Beowulf's sedan was previously driving on) at 120 miles per hour towards the railroad crossing.
You and I have been reading vastly different books. Beowulf IS NOT loaded on the GA freight train. That would amount to Beowulf sitting in the Manticore Binary System. She is not. She
is on the RMN railway, needing only to throw a switch to sidetrack the RMN to her depot through the junction. But Beowulf is still driving on her on. She is making political decisions on her own. The referendum is her own bailiwick. She is NOT loaded on the RMN train, that would truly be treason before a referendum. Marriage before divorce. She's just a stop along the way.
The crossing lights are flashing,
That flashing is the strobing yellow light that flashes on some traffic lights to warn speeding motorists (Beowulf) that she is proceeding too quickly to stop for the imminent red light. The red light is her warning NOT to interfere with her own founding's attempt to enter the intersection. If an empty rig does not intend to stop because it thinks it has the right of way, what the hell is a sedan doing trying to pit maneuver it? There'll be repercussions. Heck, Beowulf should be given a ticket for an unsafe maneuver.
The unsafe maneuver is what this thread is about - Karma. the crossing guard arms have come down, the traffic lights for the roads (not the railroad track) are showing red in all directions, including for the SLN truck, the freight train has its headlight on and is sounding its horn, but the SLN truck driver is too stupid or stubborn to do anything but decide to try to beat the train, with an old, obsolete truck that can't accelerate to beat the train, but that could stop in time if the driver decided to step on the brakes.
You still don't get what this thread is about. None of that matters as far as the innocent lives snuffed out on Beowulf. Because she tried to take on a road raging Gorilla in a lorry with a Toyota Corolla - hoping her bf who drives a train will get to her before the road raging gorilla takes her out.
A 20M lives mistake.
Oh yeeeea. There'll be some deaths on that SLN truck for sure. But! The Gorilla has a fleet of trucks on the Hwy and one will make it through on her next long distance haul just in time to take part in a 20M car pileup - at an intersection in Beowulfan space.
Simply because Beowulf didn't respect an out of control road raging Gorilla.
All because the SLN truck driver was too stupid or stubborn to obey the rules of the road. As you say: dead wrong or dead right is still dead. A failure to obey the rules of the road, and a complete misread of the situation as it actually exists, results in a dead SLN.
I agree. Everyone knows the truck driver is stupid. He's also arrogant. He's also color blind, and couldn't see a red light if they were all red. Beowulf knows he's stupid. Full of road rage. And color blind. All she had to do to not suffer ANY deaths was pull over on the soft shoulder and let the raging lunatic get through the intersection. If he wants to kill himself, LET HIM! But please, do protect your own!
I don't know anyone driving a sedan who wouldn't yield for a rig driven by an out of control raging gorilla charging through an intersection on a mission.
Little consolation that someone dies
with you.
Beowulf should learn to handle road rage better.
