Friday, May 11, 2007
Hey, I think I have a bead on the whole ‘road rage’ thing. Let me try it on you:
1] In America, the land of the free, no one is gonna tell me what to do, when and where I can do it.
2] On the other hand, what with advertising and so on, we are remarkably good at telling each other what we think should be done. [alternately, what we think they should be doing]
3] We love outlaws - especially the ones who got away with it - and we love violence, no matter how we may say we abhor it. In fact, it’s precisely the ones who say they abhor it, who love it the most.
4] If we do something illegal, and get caught, we are furious! There is video proof of it, folks screaming and throwing torn up tickets right back in the patrolman’s face.
5] As far as we are concerned, if we do something illegal, which gets us past the slower driver [the minivan, the Prius, the econo-box drivers, so much the better, but …
6] If that other driver does the same thing we’d do, and gets ahead of us, despite our maneuver, we are just as steamed as the guy who got caught by the cop [#4]!
Tell you where this comes from, and my conclusions …
The other day, at an intersection where this is common, I in my minivan, and the other driver in his pickup truck. [primer gray, with camper shell - you know who you are] This clown attempts to pass me on the right. Now, there’s a bus stop, which was empty, and very few cars along the curb, so he figured he had enough room to pull it off. He reckoned without my own temper - I hate it when the other guy gets away with it - and I congratulate myself when he doesn’t!
I floored it - and left him behind! Now, I’m glad there was no cop in the area, but when he jumped out of his truck, came menacingly toward me, said he was going to ‘knock me out’ - I was glad the light changed! I steamed away from the scene, proceeding north - I won’t tell you what street - then made a ‘block around’ to the left, heading back toward the police station. At which point, he broke off. Guess he actually had to go to work …
I congratulated myself, and then thought a little bit more. My conclusion is obvious, but not popular, for the above enumerated reasons. If only I’d engaged the brain before the light changed, I’d have let the other guy be as stupid as he wanted to be. He would have made his maneuver, but who knows? Just once, the cop might have been watching! I mean, the police have that reputation of never being there when we need them - but, on rare occasions, it does happen!
But if we engage the brain, we avoid the ‘what ifs’:
1] Suppose the guy had been armed? Would I be typing this?
2] Suppose there had been a cop there when we both went steaming up the road, more or less after each other?
3] Suppose one or both of us had made a totally wrong move, and gone out of control?
It’s the not thinking beforehand that’s the problem. Rage never thinks beforehand. Rage has become the first - not the last - resort. People who get that easily enraged are often armed. All by itself, that should help some of us engage the brain first.
Let’s share the road - and if some bozo wants to get away, yet again, with the kind of maneuver we are tired of seeing him congratulate himself [or herself] on, what’s it to me? If it’s a matter of speed, let the other guy get way far ahead. When he crashes, we’ll have plenty of time to get around the wreck.
Oh, and allow yourself a little more time for your commute. I was headed home. I had plenty of time - or as my dad used to say, “It’ll be there when you get there.” So, let’s all concentrate on getting there, and let the bozos do what they will.
1] In America, the land of the free, no one is gonna tell me what to do, when and where I can do it.
2] On the other hand, what with advertising and so on, we are remarkably good at telling each other what we think should be done. [alternately, what we think they should be doing]
3] We love outlaws - especially the ones who got away with it - and we love violence, no matter how we may say we abhor it. In fact, it’s precisely the ones who say they abhor it, who love it the most.
4] If we do something illegal, and get caught, we are furious! There is video proof of it, folks screaming and throwing torn up tickets right back in the patrolman’s face.
5] As far as we are concerned, if we do something illegal, which gets us past the slower driver [the minivan, the Prius, the econo-box drivers, so much the better, but …
6] If that other driver does the same thing we’d do, and gets ahead of us, despite our maneuver, we are just as steamed as the guy who got caught by the cop [#4]!
Tell you where this comes from, and my conclusions …
The other day, at an intersection where this is common, I in my minivan, and the other driver in his pickup truck. [primer gray, with camper shell - you know who you are] This clown attempts to pass me on the right. Now, there’s a bus stop, which was empty, and very few cars along the curb, so he figured he had enough room to pull it off. He reckoned without my own temper - I hate it when the other guy gets away with it - and I congratulate myself when he doesn’t!
I floored it - and left him behind! Now, I’m glad there was no cop in the area, but when he jumped out of his truck, came menacingly toward me, said he was going to ‘knock me out’ - I was glad the light changed! I steamed away from the scene, proceeding north - I won’t tell you what street - then made a ‘block around’ to the left, heading back toward the police station. At which point, he broke off. Guess he actually had to go to work …
I congratulated myself, and then thought a little bit more. My conclusion is obvious, but not popular, for the above enumerated reasons. If only I’d engaged the brain before the light changed, I’d have let the other guy be as stupid as he wanted to be. He would have made his maneuver, but who knows? Just once, the cop might have been watching! I mean, the police have that reputation of never being there when we need them - but, on rare occasions, it does happen!
But if we engage the brain, we avoid the ‘what ifs’:
1] Suppose the guy had been armed? Would I be typing this?
2] Suppose there had been a cop there when we both went steaming up the road, more or less after each other?
3] Suppose one or both of us had made a totally wrong move, and gone out of control?
It’s the not thinking beforehand that’s the problem. Rage never thinks beforehand. Rage has become the first - not the last - resort. People who get that easily enraged are often armed. All by itself, that should help some of us engage the brain first.
Let’s share the road - and if some bozo wants to get away, yet again, with the kind of maneuver we are tired of seeing him congratulate himself [or herself] on, what’s it to me? If it’s a matter of speed, let the other guy get way far ahead. When he crashes, we’ll have plenty of time to get around the wreck.
Oh, and allow yourself a little more time for your commute. I was headed home. I had plenty of time - or as my dad used to say, “It’ll be there when you get there.” So, let’s all concentrate on getting there, and let the bozos do what they will.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
