Merging Issues

     So as we are driving to meet our new Realtor, we run into a major bottleneck on the highway.  As we inch along, I notice signs on both sides of the lanes that read "Left Lane Closed, Merge right" with diminishing distance markers that start at 2000 feet.  The whole time we are moving forward, I see dozens of cars racing along the left hand lane (You know, the one that is ending?  So when we finally reach where the lane ends, you have a line of vehicles a half mile long with their right blinkers flashing trying to cross over into the other lanes.  These lanes are full because the idiots ignored the signs and are now trying to change lanes.
     This is hardly the first time I have seen this and it always amazes me.  IF these drivers had just changed lanes back when the signs first showed up, there would have been less congestion.  Everyone would have made it to their destination much sooner.  However, the drivers rushed down the "faster" lane (Faster because more sensible drivers had already moved over a lane or two) because they could get ahead of everyone else.  So out of their own sense of urgency, they inconvenienced pretty much everyone else.
     Like I said, this is hardly the first time I have seen this happen and I really think that it all goes back to the incredible sense of entitlement that a lot of people have where they believe that their needs and desires are more important than everyone else.  THEY have to get to work or some other destination so THEY have the right to break the rules and ignore the laws.  Never mind that pretty much everyone else has the exact same need.
     I read in the news feeds every now and then how some person has injured workers or emergency personnel because they ignored signs, flags etc.  The excuse that almost always shows up is "Well, I was in a hurry and Needed to get somewhere."  The laws and regulations don't apply to them because their need is more important than other people's.
     I sometimes wonder exactly where this nearly maniac sense of entitlement that so many people feel has come from.  How did we, as a race and a culture, become so obsessive that we truly feel that our rights are more important than our fellows?  I see this Shift going on all around me and I just don't understand.
     No Individual's rights and needs are more important than others.  Maybe some people want that to be true, but it isn't.  Unless you are transporting someone who's arm has just been severed in a freak salad shooter accident, you aren't entitled to cut in line.  Unless you are rushing to disarm a Gazillion Mega-Ton Whoopie Cushion, you aren't allowed to swerve around road blocks or ignore flag waving type people.
     As I point out in my book, Driving is one of the few areas where practicing your inner Ass is not a good thing.  Try to be considerate of others out there.  Obey the laws and signage so that everyone arrives at their destination a little earlier and a lot safer. 

End of rant