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Opinion: "Predator Driving Culture" Questioned
"Predator Driving Culture" Questioned
By Scoop Reader Bruce Thomson
Have you noticed the growing culture of intimidation by vehicle? Let's consider noisemaking, then look at other ways you are being 'preyed on'...
Harassing noises
- Modified mufflers that are
'thunderous'
People viscerally associate the loud noises
with thunder, storms, discomfort, danger, injuries and
death. The driver makes the loud noise intrude into our
personal space. This causes unease, and disrupts
conversations so that we are divided from each other.
-
Modified mufflers that 'snarl' or 'growl'
These sounds
associate the vehicle and its driver with familiar sounds of
animals fighting or killing their prey. Again, the sound
intrudes, subliminally terrorizes, and divides us.
-
Startling 'hiss' noises from blow-off valves operating
during gear changes
The ear is very sensitive to the high
frequency hiss noise, especially at such high volume. It
startles people nearby. There is probably an unconscious
association with some very dangerous animal sounds from wild
cats and snakes in the media and in real life.
- Squealing
tyres
Even done playfully, these sounds are the same as
those associated with collisions, screams of great pain,
injuries, death, and the following grief. The sounds
therefore excite and alarm those who hear them, especially
if the sounds are imposed without warning or understanding
or the cause.
- Boom-box stereos
From public
media experiences, the ear-bashing thump is associated with
closeness to jungle drumming, war beats, and even
cannibalism. The physics of this low frequency sound are
that it spread out much further, intruding into more
personal space, giving domination over more
people.
Predator vehicles
Many vehicles seem now to have gone far beyond the 'powerful sporty' look, and are being presented as decidedly malevolent.
The 'powerful sporty' styling first overflowed from the competitive motorsports venues into our downtown streets and neighbourhoods. This brought vehicles that went way past the functionality of mobility. It saw vastly more engine power, lowered suspension, racing tyres and hubs for fast cornering, aerofoils on the boot, airflow skirts round the base, racing stripes, vehicle labelling and other high-speed detailing to boast power and speed.
But now look how this is extending into more 'domineering' features:
- Visual design of vehicle body
and 'face'
There are now vehicles that combine features
like predator 'eyes' (shaped headlights), bull-terrier
'snout' (bonnet), 'muscular' fenders, and bull-bar grills.
- Shining spokes
There is a big fad for shining,
jagged 'teeth-like' wheel spokes. I've wondered whether
the hugely famous Hollywood scene from the movie 'Ben Hur'
is being copied. (The villain's chariot had wheels with
spinning knives to chew into the hero's chariot wheels. I
have even seen this famous moment on TV this week, forty
five years after the release of the movie, which is still
in most video stores.) The wheel trim culture is so strong
that I have a copy of an Palmerston North advert that sells
sets of four wheels with tyres, for a thousand dollars each
wheel. Is that buying aluminium and rubber, or copycat
culture?
- Predator anonymity and stealth
In contrast
to most normal vehicles, we see tinted windows, wrap-around
sunglasses, and hoods concealing faces, to hide the identity
of driver and passengers. They are not as easily accountable
to others for their driving behaviour. The registration
plate is a helpful reconnection with the rest of us who
share the cost of roading and hospitals, etc.
- Slogans
and logos
I have photos of windscreens and paintwork,
with words like such as 'Reaper', 'Havoc', and logos of
snarling animals. Skulls and death too. (Is it our skulls
and death or theirs? Whose?)
- High wheelbase vehicles and
high handlebar motorcycles
These put the driver
overpoweringly 'above' others in the classic predatory
positions of the 'bigger' beast or bird of prey. Suggested
responses
What are we to do?
The predatory instinct is in all of us, as a vital means of protecting our families and culture. The trouble is when it misguidedly turns in on the same families and culture, becoming harassment.
Here are some suggestions:
- Articulate to the public the fantasy-predatory driving that we are being subjected to.
- Redirect that predatory aggressiveness into healthy physical sports where participants at least give personal consent to the conflict and injuries involved.
- Connect it all with road safety. Use the warrant of fitness to prevent antisocial modification of vehicles.
- Where possible, try to 'include' into the community even those striving fiercely for independent uniqueness. Reassert family and community as the real foundation of happiness, so it becomes 'uncool' to prey on us.
Bruce
Thomson hails from Palmerston
North
Scoop
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