Holy crap, I can't honestly believe that it is really all that bad out there. But wait, I get it. I'm convinced that if you walk around thinking about an incident, or worse yet somehow prepared to defend yourself, you're asking for trouble. Something about a person's mannerisms, body language, or maybe just aura if you will, is different when they are expecting trouble. If you’re having that much trouble you’re probably bringing some of it on yourself.

Seriously, try waving or popping a little wheely as you pass the Bmxer’s. If somebody yelled at me, I might yell something back. But if I was smiling when I did it then I think there’s a good chance the whole interaction would diffuse into a game. Even if someone throws something at you, you can stop and in a very disappointed, unaggressive way be like, “Aw come on man, I’m just trying to get home from work.”

Now maybe, just maybe there are places where it is so bad that you have to be prepared (though I doubt it). Perhaps someone could try feeling a little disappointed in that fact instead of getting a sense of self importance over the matter. I think that being quietly sad that you have to carry a weapon can go a long way towards never having to use it.

But then again, with drama there is something to talk about. So you can be ready to defend yourself against a hostile world and have lots of cool stuff to talk about on BF. Go ahead and play the Us vs. Them game if you want. It is exciting.