Earlier in the week somebody slammed on their brakes in front of me, on the freeway, for no apparent reason. Later in the day I called my wife, and told her about it. "What kind of person slams on their brakes on the freeway?"
I drive a sand and gravel transfer truck, and if my big rig had have been fully loaded, I would have killed the driver in front of me. Driving a truck can be a challenge, so truckers drive defensively, and in a manner that is essentially like a chess game, always watching the road several moves ahead.
Sudden, unexpected, events, however, cannot always be foreseen.
Unloaded, my rig is only about 28,000 pounds. Fully loaded, I am about 80,000 pounds. Carrying that kind of weight, there is no way on God's green Earth I would have been able to stop in time, the way the driver in front of me had slammed on his brakes, on the freeway.
Then, after the driver resolved whatever it was that he slammed on his brakes over, the person took off down the road as if nothing had ever happened.
The drivers in the vehicles that had been behind me, now going around me as I methodically worked to gain speed again, flipped me off and laid on their horns as they passed - assuming the situation was all my fault, and that I was the idiot slamming on my brakes on the freeway. The culprit, by then, was long gone farther up the road.
So, I'm telling my wife about this incredible experience, and she says, "Well, you have to understand, Doug. The poor driver might have had a mental problem, or maybe he dropped something, or maybe. . . "
And I got to thinking, First of all, that university she went to really screwed her up. Second of all, I wonder how different people would have viewed the situation I found myself in. . .
- Some segments of society would believe the person had every right to slam on their brakes on the freeway, because to these people a right is a license to do whatever you want. If that was the case, then the person slamming on their brakes on the freeway, if he agreed with that segment of society about rights being a license to do whatever, can slam on his brakes anytime he pleases. In this case, however, it may have just been that he simply dropped his bong.
- There is another segment of society that may have determined that it is America that caused the idiot to slam on his brakes. If America wasn't such a horrible place to live, hadn't displaced the Indians, hadn't participated in the slave trade, and if America wasn't such an imperialistic, warmongering, divided country of rightwing religious extremists, this person wouldn't have felt the need to slam on their brakes. And as a result, had I have killed the person that slammed on his brakes, his cohorts would immediately begin apologizing for the horrors of America that must have led to the accident. I would be compared to everything that America has done to every group in history. These people would probably also have a smiley-face bumper sticker on their cars, that says: "Have a nice day" right next to the one that says "Bush Lied, People Died."
- Another segment of society, a segment closely related to the one I just spoke of, would determine that the person who slammed on their brakes did so in reflex to all of the political rhetoric put out there by those rightwing, nutcase extremists. As far as these people are concerned, anyone out there that has an opinion that opposes liberalism is simply sick in the head. Therefore, due to the unwillingness to conform with the progressive idea of collectivism, and for daring to challenge the all-powerful and almighty federal government, it is the fault of loud-mouth opponents of liberalism that caused this poor sap to slam on his brakes. If it turned out that the driver of the car that slammed on its brakes was one of these people, the car would have been a hybrid, with a bumper sticker that says: "F**k War." On the other end of the bumper a green sticker would read: "Have you hugged a tree today?"
- Another segment of society may believe that the guy who slammed on his brakes did so because of mental illness. This particular segment of society is preoccupied with labels, and believes that everything happens for external reasons, not by individual choice. So the person who slammed on his brakes, apparently, did so because he had a mental illness that was no doubt brought on by the presence of the rightwing extremists in the United States. The rightwing extremists caused the problem by refusing to buy into Obamacare, and other entitlement programs, which caused the driver to be unable to get his medication, and because probably he had some horrible memory caused by the Right that made him have a knee-jerk reaction that made him slam on his brakes. You know, it was probably something he heard that Palin said. Besides, his mental illness was assisted by the problems of the car, probably a Toyota, and the damn capitalistic system that enabled those big bad corporations to place their profit, and bonuses, above building a car that would react in a way more in line with the driver's particular quirks. You know, those sticking pedals and that damned planned obsolescence. Oh, and it's Bush's fault, too. The war took people off the assembly line, too, leaving less people to work on making the car the perfect model of perfection that it could have been. Next time, the guy may prefer to be in an electric car. That way, it wouldn't be going fast enough to cause a ruckus when the driver hit the brakes.
Whatever the cause, as far as the liberals are concerned, it couldn't possibly be the fault of the driver himself. To say that would be to admit that there is such a thing as personal responsibility, and individualism. Hardly an acceptable concept in a world of collectivism.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Unloaded, my rig is only about 28,000 pounds. Fully loaded, I am about 80,000 pounds. Carrying that kind of weight, there is no way on God's green Earth I would have been able to stop in time, the way the driver in front of me had slammed on his brakes, on the freeway.
Then, after the driver resolved whatever it was that he slammed on his brakes over, the person took off down the road as if nothing had ever happened.
The drivers in the vehicles that had been behind me, now going around me as I methodically worked to gain speed again, flipped me off and laid on their horns as they passed - assuming the situation was all my fault, and that I was the idiot slamming on my brakes on the freeway. The culprit, by then, was long gone farther up the road.
So, I'm telling my wife about this incredible experience, and she says, "Well, you have to understand, Doug. The poor driver might have had a mental problem, or maybe he dropped something, or maybe. . . "
And I got to thinking, First of all, that university she went to really screwed her up. Second of all, I wonder how different people would have viewed the situation I found myself in. . .
- Some segments of society would believe the person had every right to slam on their brakes on the freeway, because to these people a right is a license to do whatever you want. If that was the case, then the person slamming on their brakes on the freeway, if he agreed with that segment of society about rights being a license to do whatever, can slam on his brakes anytime he pleases. In this case, however, it may have just been that he simply dropped his bong.
- There is another segment of society that may have determined that it is America that caused the idiot to slam on his brakes. If America wasn't such a horrible place to live, hadn't displaced the Indians, hadn't participated in the slave trade, and if America wasn't such an imperialistic, warmongering, divided country of rightwing religious extremists, this person wouldn't have felt the need to slam on their brakes. And as a result, had I have killed the person that slammed on his brakes, his cohorts would immediately begin apologizing for the horrors of America that must have led to the accident. I would be compared to everything that America has done to every group in history. These people would probably also have a smiley-face bumper sticker on their cars, that says: "Have a nice day" right next to the one that says "Bush Lied, People Died."
- Another segment of society, a segment closely related to the one I just spoke of, would determine that the person who slammed on their brakes did so in reflex to all of the political rhetoric put out there by those rightwing, nutcase extremists. As far as these people are concerned, anyone out there that has an opinion that opposes liberalism is simply sick in the head. Therefore, due to the unwillingness to conform with the progressive idea of collectivism, and for daring to challenge the all-powerful and almighty federal government, it is the fault of loud-mouth opponents of liberalism that caused this poor sap to slam on his brakes. If it turned out that the driver of the car that slammed on its brakes was one of these people, the car would have been a hybrid, with a bumper sticker that says: "F**k War." On the other end of the bumper a green sticker would read: "Have you hugged a tree today?"
- Another segment of society may believe that the guy who slammed on his brakes did so because of mental illness. This particular segment of society is preoccupied with labels, and believes that everything happens for external reasons, not by individual choice. So the person who slammed on his brakes, apparently, did so because he had a mental illness that was no doubt brought on by the presence of the rightwing extremists in the United States. The rightwing extremists caused the problem by refusing to buy into Obamacare, and other entitlement programs, which caused the driver to be unable to get his medication, and because probably he had some horrible memory caused by the Right that made him have a knee-jerk reaction that made him slam on his brakes. You know, it was probably something he heard that Palin said. Besides, his mental illness was assisted by the problems of the car, probably a Toyota, and the damn capitalistic system that enabled those big bad corporations to place their profit, and bonuses, above building a car that would react in a way more in line with the driver's particular quirks. You know, those sticking pedals and that damned planned obsolescence. Oh, and it's Bush's fault, too. The war took people off the assembly line, too, leaving less people to work on making the car the perfect model of perfection that it could have been. Next time, the guy may prefer to be in an electric car. That way, it wouldn't be going fast enough to cause a ruckus when the driver hit the brakes.
Whatever the cause, as far as the liberals are concerned, it couldn't possibly be the fault of the driver himself. To say that would be to admit that there is such a thing as personal responsibility, and individualism. Hardly an acceptable concept in a world of collectivism.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
I say, it's a result of poor public education. People haven't been taught that the laws of physics are spoiled little brats that always get their way.
ReplyDeleteNow let's see why the chicken crossed the road.
http://fusionanomaly.net/whydidthechickencrosstheroad.html
If you had been following far enough back, maybe loaded you would have not hit them. Aren't rig drivers supposed to drive defensively? Sounds like you were following too closely.
ReplyDeleteIn traffic at full speed cars are constantly pulling in front of you. Therefore, in the kind of traffic I was in the key is to look ahead by observing the environment and anticipating possible actions by other motorists. No matter how aware one can be, however, unexpected moves such as someone suddenly slamming on their brakes on a freeway is something that one cannot prepare for. At full speed, fully loaded at 80,000 pounds, it could take a quarter mile before the driver can stop the rig. In heavy traffic, the other motorists would never enable such distance in front of a rig, for they don't understand this, and are constantly pulling in front. The only way to combat that, aside from trying to anticipate, would be to slow down to a speed that would result in the rig impeding traffic.
ReplyDelete