Some days it really feels like you are the last man standing as the zombie horde rolls in, and sometimes it feels like people just seem to scream stop at every little thing. However, a lot of times it just looks like this to everyone else:
The security guard is doing his job and is the hero of his own story (in fact has an extra on DVD about his family.) He is trying to get the 'villians' to stop. Austin Powers is the hero in his story because he is just trying to get to the other side of the room to stop Doctor Evil. The vast gulf between the two is just how far apart and how little danger there really is. It is also a story about how avoidable the inevitable crunch at the end is.
- The guard could have stood to the left or right and let the steamroller go by. [The guard could have also shot Austin or something else.]
- Austin could have 'swerved to the left or right' just a little and missed the guard. [Or he could have gotten out and gotten there faster.]
OK so you are thinking "Yes Captain Obvious that is exactly the humour being shown here.. thank you for breaking it down for us..." The point I am looking at is how often this mirrors our online community problems. Someone is trying to accomplish something, and someone for whatever reason yells stop. (Or someone is meant to keep something stable, and someone is ramming through a new paradigm). Those of us in the moment get caught up in all the energy, and we forget that to most people outside that all they see is how avoidable the whole confrontation was.
Sometimes we feel that it is better to get run over by the steamroller than take a step left or right. Sometimes we feel that putting the pedal to the metal on the steamroller is going to make this so much faster, and we can't move it to the right or left for a small change.