Saturday, August 16, 2008

My Stance On Reckless Driving

Speaking of bad advertising, I passed a billboard by the perennial Ad Council, with a sort of '50s-by-way-of-the-'80s man grinning at you saying

I WANT YOU TO SPEAK OUT AGAINST RECKLESS DRIVING!

I'm boggled by the sequence of events that had to occur in order for this billboard to come into being.

  • First, reckless driving had to become en vogue enough to attract someone's attention. This is possibly the most phenomenal part in the series of events. Seriously, given the dangers of reckless driving, one has to wonder how it could ever get to be very popular.
  • Second, someone had to say, "I must do something about this!" That's not so hard to find, especially among branches of the government that constantly cast about for things to do something about.
  • Third, someone had to decide that the problem was, the driver of reckless driving, as it were, was popular acceptance. That is, the reason people drive like maniacs and risk their lives is because of peer pressure. That's kind of an astounding conclusion to come to, when you think of it.
  • Fourth, someone then had to decide this could be handled by putting up a billboard.
Anyway, I guess I should do as the sign says. So, let me say that I think, with some caveats, that reckless driving is bad. You really shouldn't do it. Being all nuance-minded, I have to say that if you're a NASCAR driver or in a monster truck rally, you probably need to drive recklessly.

And, frankly, if you want to drive recklessly somewhere away from public roads, I think that's pretty much your right.

I hope this doesn't reduce the power of my denunciation.

So, yeah, I expect those reckless driving rates to start dropping shortly.

2 comments:

  1. My city has a ten member Aggressive Driver Response Team (ADRT.)

    We also have laws against throwing out recyclables.

    And, my neighborhood is packed with Obama yard signs and bumper stickers (My car sticker says "Republicans for Obama.")

    Strangely, this is still a great place to live, even for conservatives. I think that we have some of the best conservatives. Last week I spent several hours going through the building permit process.

    In the waiting room I spent well over an hour talking with a fellow permit applicant. He spent 20 years as a SEAL, he has two degrees, he has been with Blackwater (Iraq/Afghanistan) for six years, he is a builder/remodeler when not overseas, he's about to start as a six month contract trainer on a local Army base, and much more.

    He doesn't sound anything like the BHO-antagonists that dominate TV, blogs, and radio. But, he does sound like all of the conservatives (who follow the details of policy) who I know around here. We're done with the GOP this time around. We're informed, and we're sick of the stupid point scoring, strategic political manipulations, and lies.

    Maybe we're different because we're used to losing fights against the nanny state laws. And, then we see that the nanny state laws aren't that hard to live with after they're implemented. I mean seriously, you can still throw away recyclables. I've only been flagged by my garbage man when I put in an open box of sawdust. Our garbage rules ban sawdust that is not in a bag, as does make sense from the perspective of the garbage man dealing with my loose dust--my lack of consideration was unwise. So why not make it illegal for degenerates who would deposit sawdust out of spite rather than as a one time oversight?

    Er...if OT were a sport I would be a real contender.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ah, those Ad Council billboards. There used to be one I'd drive past on the way to work with a dramatic photo of a child with tears running down its face, and it said "A Hot Stove is Meant for Cooking" or something stupid like that. Ridiculous in too many ways to count.

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