The dangers of (re)acting too quickly

Recently a cabbie in New York City was attacked by passers-by as he tried to force a group of women to pay him for the ride they had taken in his cab. The cabbie had taken one of the women's purses, but let's take a step back and study the situation.

The passers-by were in a vehicle that drove by as the cabbie grabbed one of the women's purses. At this point the only information they had was that the women were upset that the purse had been grabbed and that the man had grabbed it. They had several options available to them:

• Do nothing. The passers-by apparently wanted to aid the damsels in distress, so this was not a viable option
• Stop the car, get out, ask some questions. If the passers-by wanted justice, they should first have determined who was the criminal. They could have asked a few quick questions to ascertain the situation before they took any action.
• Detain the cabbie. Rather than beating up the cabbie, the passers-by could have just detained him and made him give the purse back. If they were able to beat him up and then flee, they certainly could have detained him instead.
• Beat the cabbie up without ascertaining the details of the situation.

While the last option is certainly the most satisfying to vigilantes, it is also the most destructive action they could have taken, and demonstrates the dangers of acting too quickly without understanding the situation to which one is reacting.

With the current economic crisis, many groups are advocating one plan or another to stimulate the economy, and almost all of them say we must act quickly before something bad happens. The truth of it is, however, that they know little more about the effect their stimulus will have on the economy than these passers-by knew about the cabbie. Doing something about the economy is satisfying, but is any old something what we really want to do?

At the GNU Public Dictatorship we are nothing if not careful. Our Board of Dictators meets to discuss all of the problems facing society, and we carefully consider every move we make (except for that odortising thing...that slipped through somehow). Rest assured that we are not like the passers-by in this story, and that we try to understand the circumstances and the probable impact of our actions before we act.