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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!decvax!tektronix!hplabs!nsc!voder!kevin
From: kevin@voder.UUCP (The Last Bugfighter)
Newsgroups: net.auto
Subject: Re: violence on the roads
Message-ID: <637@voder.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 16-Jan-85 21:04:36 EST
Article-I.D.: voder.637
Posted: Wed Jan 16 21:04:36 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 21-Jan-85 02:11:03 EST
References: <1210@shark.UUCP> <387@hou2g.UUCP>
Organization: National Semiconductor, Santa Clara
Lines: 29

>    I am curious as to possible reasons for the alarming
>level of violent behaviour during driving disputes in
>the U.S. ...   such as the person whose passenger caught
>a bullet between the eyes because he flashed his headlights
>at a guy going the other way.

*** Quick, duck!  There's on-coming traffic! ***

   As to the why, I think that in todays very regulated society a lot of us
feel somewhat 'impotent' (males and females).  If someone kicks your dog
you can't go and punch him because then he'll sue you for $1,000,000.  So
you end up sueing him, it only takes several years and a lawyer ends up with
most of the settlement anyway.
   But get inside your car and you have a $10,000 dollar suit of armor in 
addition to a fast get-away.  Now you can take-on everyone else on the road
because you're reasonably safe behind your shield.  Did that wimp with the 
glasses and the Porsche 928 pass you?  Bump him off the road.  Did that 230lb
redneck with a IQ of 46 sneer at you?  Push him into a telephone pole.
   What a great way to work off all your frustrations.  You're just another
faceless non-entity behind your tinted windshield getting even with the rest
of the world.  Maybe you have to be meek and mild with your boss, but on the
road it's Offensive Driving, otherwise known as Driving Through Intimidation.
   Of course it's also possible that these people are just jerks.

-- 
Kevin Thompson   {ucbvax,ihnp4!nsc}!voder!kevin

"It's sort of a threat, you see.  I've never been very good at them
  myself but I'm told they can be very effective."