How civilization has evolved (?)

Or running with the herd of sheep. All has been great here in the DC / Alexandria area and we are loving every minute of it, well except for me today for 2 hours. I have noticed that everything runs like clockwork when it comes to the commute to and from work, the same people are there for the 4:36 train to Roslyn and the same ones for the train to King Street. They get on the same cars sit or stand in the same area and all is well. Now mind you I’m talking about probably two or three hundred commuters that I see just in my 30 minute commute. Well today a monkey wrench was thrown in when there was smoke between 2 of the stations, this meant everybody exiting the train at Arlington Cemetery and taking a shuttle bus to Pentagon Station and then back on the train. Sounds easy, huh?? Well as we exited the train and went up to the street level we were greeted by the last 2 train loads of peeps (approx 100 people), making for a crowded bus stop. After two or three more trains dumped their load we stood around 300 strong, strong sheep that is. I saw the DC suit and tie crowd acting like animals elbowing their way toward taxis that weren’t stopping, moving in a wave when they thought a bus was coming and almost overturning a sightseeing bus for Arlington Cemetery (okay they didn’t try and overturn it but they were not happy when it wouldn’t take them to Pentagon Station). After 30 or 40 minutes we were told there were no buses and to head back to the train as it was running again. So of course everyone headed back down in an orderly fashion right??? Nope you guessed it everyone pushed and shoved and the little two person escalator was bottled necked. I myself stood back and had a smoke with the Statue of the SeeBee (which by the way is a cool memorial at Arlington Cemetery). Once back on the platform I hopped on my train with what seemed like 100 of my closest friends in one car and when we couldn’t get one more sardine in it was off we went amongst moans and groans from people about how bad the Metro is and HOW DARE they, I watched a poor older gent (about 80ish) that was standing fall into a couple of suits when the train jerked and the disgusted look on their faces (of course no one offered him their seat). So the moral of the story is… life is wonderful and people are friendly and accommodating UNLESS they are slightly inconvenienced. This herd made even the UN-friendly Wal-Mart Greeters of Kodiak look good.