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Question
What do you infer from Gardiner’s essay ‘On the rule of the Road'?
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Solution
A.G. Gardiner’s essay ‘On the rule of the Road’ is a treatise on “liberty”. He starts the essay with an anecdote. A liberty-drunk Russian lady starts walking down the middle of the Highway frustrating car drivers, bus drivers, and the traffic police. When questioned about her behavior, she just replied that she now has the liberty to walk anywhere she liked. The author observes that if a pedestrian gives up the pavement in preference to the road, cars will be forced to move on to the pavement. This would result in universal chaos. Everybody would be getting in everybody’s way. Nobody would get anywhere. Individual liberty would have become social anarchy.
Under such circumstances, the world is in danger of getting liberty drunk. The rule of the road reminds the readers that in order that liberties of all may be preserved, the liberty of everybody must be curtailed. Thus the traffic police at Piccadilly Circus is not a symbol of tyranny but of liberty. He doesn’t hinder but helps the smooth flow of traffic. One has to allow curtailment of one’s liberty to enjoy the fruits of social order.
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