One Sunday I bought a stereo. This was back in the nineties when I was living in a flat above a hardware shop. I set it up fiddled with the dials and then got distracted. I was consequently unaware that I had turned the volume switch up to full and set a timer. For the rest of that week I was totally unaware that every day at 2.00pm my new possession was blasting out the Byrds' Greatest Hits.
It caused quite a stir in my little locality. The people in the shop by the third time attempted to break into the flat to turn it off - they had plenty of tools but couldn't get in. My actions had a big impact that I knew nothing about.
I wonder how often we do things that we wouldn't do if we knew the result. For example, what is the harm of mocking someone with a fake tan? But if they decide that they will switch from the safe fake tan to a cancer inducing sun bed you might be shortening their life.
I think that there are probably a lot of consequences that flow from things we do that we rarely if ever find out about.
I don't know what they are though.
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