The best way to understand these cranky people is to see them change a light bulb. They hold the bulb steady and let the world revolve around them.
In the 1950s humorist Brother Dave Gardner told about a guy behind a truck he could not pass. There was a sign on the back of the truck: I may be slow but I am ahead of you. The guy flips out and wrecks. It is a funny story, to a point.
Two hundred years ago humans could only go as fast as a horse could run. Those early 19th century humans could only go the speed of Romans two thousand years earlier. Perhaps there was road-rage then for slow horses. Then technology increased speed. We now can go hundreds of miles in a day in air-conditioned comfort listening to music coming from space.
But some people act like being slowed for a few moments makes the whole journey like riding in a German cattle-car in the early 1940s. Impatient people feel everything on the road purposely tries to make them mad. Ultimately, they pay the price for their maladaptive coping mechanism, though innocent people also pay.
Out in the country where I am from we generally smile and wave. We drive friendly even with strangers. There is a reason for our civility. In small towns everyone knows everyone else so bad behavior is remembered more than sin and is often punished by the offender being shunned by town folks.
Contrast that with big cities where people are mostly anonymous. Many unnecessarily aggressive drivers count on being able to disappear into a cloud of strangers after their intentionally bad moments. But there is a change brought to us by technology: car video systems.
With car video systems recording the offense, it is there for all to see. It might be the police or just everyone in your community who sees the posted video and says, “Why that is my neighbor Jim, the rat.”
More instructive to road-rage issues are the thousands of videos taken by Russian drivers with onboard cameras and posted on YouTube. It is not for the faint of heart to see what these people did willingly to themselves and others.
These accidents should cause pause for thought to those who do have the ability to think. Example: a Russian car is slow so the car behind rushes around it only to flatten itself on the front of a large truck, bursts into flames and then is thrown down a mountainside. They were late in more ways than one.
While this might be the Darwin Awards in action, I think this shows lack of community. The more we record road-rage by our neighbors; perhaps the less likely they will be to do it.
One time I was traveling between towns and saw someone I was seriously on the outs with at that time stranded on the side of the road with an obviously dead car. I slowed down and my companion looked at me like I had taken leave of my senses.
The man got into the back seat as I asked, “Next town?”
He said, “Yes, my brother lives there.”
That was the whole conversation except when we got to that town he directed me to turn at the second road and almost inaudibly said, “Thanks.”
My companion was incensed. “Why did you pick up that awful man?” I smiled and said that no matter how out of sorts we get in the West, we do not leave people on the side of the road. Plus, I opined, it hurt him quite a lot to say thanks.
So the next person who comes at you with road-rage, just get out of their way. It is far better to let that person be seen on YouTube smashed into by a large truck, on fire and going down a mountainside. Better safe than dead.
Dr. Michael Swickard hosts the syndicated radio talk show News New Mexico six to nine a.m. Monday - Friday on a number of New Mexico radio stations and through streaming. Email: michael@swickard.com
In the 1950s humorist Brother Dave Gardner told about a guy behind a truck he could not pass. There was a sign on the back of the truck: I may be slow but I am ahead of you. The guy flips out and wrecks. It is a funny story, to a point.
Two hundred years ago humans could only go as fast as a horse could run. Those early 19th century humans could only go the speed of Romans two thousand years earlier. Perhaps there was road-rage then for slow horses. Then technology increased speed. We now can go hundreds of miles in a day in air-conditioned comfort listening to music coming from space.
But some people act like being slowed for a few moments makes the whole journey like riding in a German cattle-car in the early 1940s. Impatient people feel everything on the road purposely tries to make them mad. Ultimately, they pay the price for their maladaptive coping mechanism, though innocent people also pay.
Out in the country where I am from we generally smile and wave. We drive friendly even with strangers. There is a reason for our civility. In small towns everyone knows everyone else so bad behavior is remembered more than sin and is often punished by the offender being shunned by town folks.
Contrast that with big cities where people are mostly anonymous. Many unnecessarily aggressive drivers count on being able to disappear into a cloud of strangers after their intentionally bad moments. But there is a change brought to us by technology: car video systems.
With car video systems recording the offense, it is there for all to see. It might be the police or just everyone in your community who sees the posted video and says, “Why that is my neighbor Jim, the rat.”
More instructive to road-rage issues are the thousands of videos taken by Russian drivers with onboard cameras and posted on YouTube. It is not for the faint of heart to see what these people did willingly to themselves and others.
These accidents should cause pause for thought to those who do have the ability to think. Example: a Russian car is slow so the car behind rushes around it only to flatten itself on the front of a large truck, bursts into flames and then is thrown down a mountainside. They were late in more ways than one.
While this might be the Darwin Awards in action, I think this shows lack of community. The more we record road-rage by our neighbors; perhaps the less likely they will be to do it.
One time I was traveling between towns and saw someone I was seriously on the outs with at that time stranded on the side of the road with an obviously dead car. I slowed down and my companion looked at me like I had taken leave of my senses.
The man got into the back seat as I asked, “Next town?”
He said, “Yes, my brother lives there.”
That was the whole conversation except when we got to that town he directed me to turn at the second road and almost inaudibly said, “Thanks.”
My companion was incensed. “Why did you pick up that awful man?” I smiled and said that no matter how out of sorts we get in the West, we do not leave people on the side of the road. Plus, I opined, it hurt him quite a lot to say thanks.
So the next person who comes at you with road-rage, just get out of their way. It is far better to let that person be seen on YouTube smashed into by a large truck, on fire and going down a mountainside. Better safe than dead.
Dr. Michael Swickard hosts the syndicated radio talk show News New Mexico six to nine a.m. Monday - Friday on a number of New Mexico radio stations and through streaming. Email: michael@swickard.com
