I was in rush hour the other observing some self-centered dude blocking four lanes and snarling traffic for blocks to spare himself a minor inconvenience and it occurred to me that the logical result of our recent embrace of vulgar libertarianism is a total breakdown of social order. Even in rush hour traffic where it's vital to everyone's survival that we observe certain norms, there always seems to be some entitled, selfish ass in an expensive car making it worse for everyone else these days.Were I a dick (I am a dick), I would point out that because the typical lane on a US road is between 9' and 12', it is impossible for a single car to block 4 lanes. But maybe the dude was driving a tractor trailer? The "selfish ass in an expensive car" suggests otherwise.
-La Digs
In any case, I invite you to journey with me to the past, in FDR's America, when no one ever got into the wrong lane or merged ill-advisedly. Oh, um, what? The idea that rude drivers represent "a total breakdown of social order," or even intimate such a thing, is so laughably hyperbolic that I was tempted to let it pass without comment, but then I was like, oh, shit, this is laughably hyperbolic.
Allow me to suggest that while it is not especially nice to cause a bit of gridlock, it is, in fact, the titanically self-entitled bourgeois outrage at the minor inconvenience of a little rush-hour traffic that makes a person a "selfish ass".
33 comments:
Well, they finally did it. They finally killed my fucking car.
It's true that rude behavior is a monopoly of libertarians
You guys realize
l'enfer, c'est les autres.
Capt'n Obvious
Liberals cause total breakdowns of social order the old-fashioned way: by bombing the shit out of other countries. This is known as "civilization".
She's just pissed that Obie is two timing her and sat down with Bill O'Reilly yesterday.
So, she turns to her favorite punching bag: libertarians. It's going to be all Teabagging/libertarian bashing over at Digby's for quite a while. I expect much ado about Rand Paul.
It's the equivalent of the abused spouse beating the children and the dogs for her husband's infidelity.
because IOZ never engages in hyperbole.
Oh god, who cares.
He was libertarian, Dude?
HTF would she know? Christ, I'm a fucking socialist, and I'm a selfish asshole on a regular basis. There is no political philosophy that's free of asshole adherents. Or any religion, either.
Hyperbole's the least of Digby's issues. The "substance" of her arguments speak for themselves. Her real problem's fundamental: godawful writing. The prose is stiff and abrasive. She's too middle class to pull off the mix of highbrow and vulgar language, so she comes off as a pedantic fraud.
Nah, she doesn't "come off" that way. The style reveals the pedantic fraudulence.
Handling the money, driving the car and talking on the phone all at the same time.
The other day some bitch was blocking the entire entrance to the produce department at Whole Foods and it occurred to me that the logical result of our recent embrace of vulgar libertarianism is a total breakdown of social order.
I think you've missed how profoundly wrong this is. There are essentially two methods of generating social order. The first, responsible for most civilized behavior the world over, is established by repeat players organizing further repeated plays; decades, centuries, and millenia of humans dealing with each other. The result is broad-based norms, but the creation is necessarily individual.
The second method is dictat by a powerful centralized government. This is extremely rare, and only works in small, profoundly un-free societies.
La Digs, meanwhile, seems to think that social order in the first sense - which is what we observe in the US - is the creation of second method; the government telling us what to do. This is not just stupifyingly wrong, she has somehow inverted the history of the whole fucking country (and apparently pines for North Korea).
La Digs has apparently never spent much time in DC. Home to the most devout believers in the ability and rightness of government to solve all problems, whatever "political" stripe, DC is one of the least friendly, disordered cities on the planet, filled with rude, self-centered assholes. Beneath the military-bunker facade is a group of starving children raised in closets. Traffic is a bitch mostly because L'Enfant had no idea we'd build soul-sucking self-same developments for a 100 miles in each direction, but no place in the country sees fewer blinkers, more cutting people off, and less "social order" on the roadways than DC. This breakdown in social order isn't the result of libertarianism, but very nearly the opposite.
I like this nugget at the end, too:
Why should the state have the right to tell a person they must demonstrate that they understand the traffic laws and know how to drive? The only reason is to protect the common good. And that's just not something a lot of Americans believe in anymore.
Because obtaining a driver's license is sure proof of one's mastery of traffic laws and ability to operate a motor vehicle. It occurs to me that the logical result of Digby's embrace of state propaganda is that her brain is now dead.
DC, hell; I'm tempted to send Digby abroad, a la Karl Pilkington in An Idiot Abroad, to see what sorts of amazing political insights she gleans from seeing how they drive in India and China.
What do people do in DC when there's a power outage and the traffic signals quit working?
I'm guessing Anarchy! Chaos! Somalia!
Joe, thank you for that.
Why should the state have the right to tell a person they must demonstrate that they understand the traffic laws and know how to drive? The only reason is to protect the common good.
The only reason. The ONLY reason.
I live on a nebulous border between two of the richer cities outside Boston. My block literally (Joe Biden) straddles that border. If you park on the Somerville side without a Somerville parking permit, you get ticketed. If you park on the Cambridge side without a Cambridge parking permit, you get ticketed.
Guess how many signs there are advertising the border. Go on. Take a blind, insane stab at it.
Ze car vas insurrectionist car. It vas writing manifesto und fucking shit up!
She should know better than to take the freeway during rush hour in Los Angeles.
ah, Camberville! where you can get a ticket for parking in front of your own house.
I thinking blocking motor traffic is a good and praiseworthy and socially constructive thing, and I do it every chance I get.
La Digs really exists? I thought she was just Herr Monsieur's Socratic foil. I'm happy never to have read her and appreciate this service.
As asinine as her latest premise is, it sounds more like a blogger's desire to take note of something nobody else would have thought of.
This passage reads like an extended Tweet (or whatever), really shittily written. And English is, like, my third or fourth language, so try to read this in the context of a thick Central Asian accent.
Liberterian = Hummer. Whether he was driving one or getting one, I can't say.
Either way, I'm guessing Digs was jealous.
C;mon, now ZOZ, tractor trailers are expensive.
See, there is a middle ground after all.
"it is not especially nice to cause a bit of gridlock"
I thought it was the solution to all our problems. Though like alcohol, it could also be the cause.
Shorter La Digs:
it is not especially nice
Who the fuck talks like that?
What the fuck are you talking about?
"DC, hell; I'm tempted to send Digby abroad..."
Oh but she has traveled abroad. She goes to Nutroots Nation every year!
I thinking blocking motor traffic is a good and praiseworthy and socially constructive thing, and I do it every chance I get.
I am at pains to see how sentiments like these - which you express over and over and over MJS - are any less stupidly self-regarding and pointless than the comprador liberalism you so frequently decry.
And how do you do this traffic-blocking, with your boat?
Some people can't live in a walker's paradise like the UWS. In fact, most people can't. There are actually poor people who have to drive.
You guys all need a new fucking act.
Get over Digby already, and yourselves.
Jesus fuck, trifling, middle-class do-nothings who think their occasional 'anarchist' temper tantrums set them apart from their douchey class.
I wish I had political enemies who I could blame for everything that annoys me during the day. Alas, I only get to think "Wow, that particular guy's a dick!" with no validation of my own moral and intellectual superiority.
Also, speaking as an inattentive driver, I have to say that most of what seems "inconsiderate" or "selfish" to others is result of guessing things like "I can make that light" wrong more than being a conscious prick.
Hey! I actually started something chez IOZ !
Nutella used "Zoz", which I believe is my personal affectionate diminutive that I minted fresh to address the young master ...
I've never been prouder !
Hyperbole's the least of Digby's issues. The "substance" of her arguments speak for themselves. Her real problem's fundamental: godawful writing. The prose is stiff and abrasive. She's too middle class to pull off the mix of highbrow and vulgar language, so she comes off as a pedantic fraud.
Nah, she doesn't "come off" that way. The style reveals the pedantic fraudulence.
Holy turd blossom! He's nailed it/her!
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