Wednesday, April 19, 2006

BMW Drivers

I still love this picture that did the rounds a few years back, and can only imagine the the grin on the person's face when he/she first sat bored and frustrated behind this BMW 530d and mentally flipped the model number over.
Generalisations aside, incidents like that reported by
Thirdworldant are not uncommon and not restricted to BMW's and taxis. But strangely enough I've found Gauteng drivers mostly accommodating in the traffic and certainly more skilled than those in Cape Town. Maybe in Jozi we're just resigned to the traffic. It's also a great excuse to stop off at the pub on the way home to wait for the traffic to ease up.

There are some serious roadworks taking place on my daily commute and I must confess to taking perverse pleasure, on the occasions that I am behind a low-clearance BMW easing its way slowly over the gravel, in driving my tired but faithful Isuzu right up its butt. It's a bit puerile but as it is pretty much what happens to me every time I venture into the fast lane I can surely be afforded this small pleasure.

4 comments:

Third World Ant said...

Puerile pleasures are more than acceptable when they involve beemers! Carry on doing your bit for the rest of driving society!

ATW said...

On second thought: are all pleasures really anything but puerile? Just a question for a Monday morning.

Third World Ant said...

Um, I'm inclined to say no. But certainly the kind which instil personal glee through infliction of sadism, are.

Generally, I will say all pleasures are rooted in the Freudian 'id' through their need for instant gratification. (Thus I would say all pleasures are born of a need to instant gratification, whethere puerile or not). Freud did lump "primitive desires" in this category.

In favour of your argument, though, 'id' is the dominant division of psyche in infants, so if you equate infants to "puerile", then you may in fact be on to something...

ATW said...

I am am lacking the energy to comment on this so early in week...atw is lacking sufficient wit. Freud & BMW drivers, now that would make an interesting thesis...Is driving a BMW some sort of Oedipus complex? But I only ever lasted one week of Psych 101 lectures..