How Did The Chicken Cross The Road?

This week in class we learned about Mores. Mores are cultural rules (either written in law or not) that people are expected to follow. If one breaks a more, they will be looked down upon at the least; however, its entirely possible for their to be much more dire consequences. Take for example an American woman traveling to the Middle East. She would be expected, nay even required, to wear a burqa. While she might not know this more of society, if she breaks it, the consequences can be dire. The example we learned about in class was street crossing. Here in Illinois, we are expected to wait for the crossing signal to cross the street safely. However, in India, intersections are more of an unorganized show of brute force than an orderly taking of turns. If an American went to India and tried to wait his turn at the intersection, he would be waiting forever.

However, our mores vary even here in America. Every summer when I was young, and before MTV turned the area into a laughing joke, my family went to the Jersey Shore. I don't remember too much from those early visits, and we stopped taking them when I was around 10. However, two years ago we started going there again. This time, as I was much older, I was much more in tune to my surroundings. Two things shocked me about New Jersey. The first is that when it comes to crossing the street, pedestrians always have the assumed right-of-way, and motorists are always expected to maneuver around them. As a result, there were very few marked crosswalks, and people were frequently crossing in the middle of a block. Another more different in New Jersey than here in Illinois pertains to getting gas. In New Jersey, there are no self-service gas stations. Attendants assist customers at every gas station across the state. This shows that a variance of mores doesnt only occur between countries, it can occur in different sections of a country as well.