Changes

The evidence produced in earlier chapters mainly supports the second view. Grass roots conflict over hitch-hiking exists in many quarters of our society, but each conflict is worked through at the level where it occurs. There is conflict over hitching in the car delivery industry, some army commanders try to ban their troops from doing it on leave; after a murder the local police warn against hitching by the group concerned, e.g. school children, there is conflict inside some families between parents and teenagers over hitching. These various forms of conflict, deep though they sometimes run, have never swelled into anything on a national scale strong enough to provoke regulation or legislation, as has happened elsewhere. Perhaps we are lucky to have mistrusted alike lawyers, institution men and profiteers.