Guido Veloce: Driving in Italy - An American Political Metaphor?

Driving in Italy - An American Political Metaphor? · Jan 2, 10:42 AM

Everyone outside of Italy seems to have fears of driving there. The collective consciousness seems to scream, “they drive really, really fast over there!”

There are two ways to approach the Italian Driving “problem.” One is to analyze the cultural forces that work to drive behavior so that Italian driving is not a mystery. Once you accept that aggressive driving is far easier to figure out than a mix of aggressive and non-aggressive driving, you can go with the flow. And that’s pretty much the driving philosophy behind Italian driving, “we are all going somewhere, let’s get there.”

This is in opposition to the American way of driving, which seems to come down to the question of, “why is everyone trying so hard to get somewhere? This is nuts! They should slow down! Wait! I know! I’ll change lanes arbitrarily and slow the whole damed freeway down! I’ll be the Prince of Slowness! I’ll get a special place in Heaven, with a Golden Steering Wheel in addition to those cool wings they give believers!”

In any case, I’ve found a tale of two philosophies with regard to Driving in Italy. One is written by Elizabeth Abbot, who writes a blog from Italy about her Cross-cultural moments. In Cross-Cultural Driving Lessons she analyzes the problem, then provides food for thought on the issue:

It is true; when driving in Rome, you can’t sit back, put on the cruise control and relax. You have to be aware of everything that is going on around you at 360° – pedestrians wandering across the road while concentrating on their cell phone conversations, scooters weaving their way to the front of the line only to take off just before the light turns green, cars merging in without looking first, cars cutting in and cutting you off – it is certainly a different relationship with the road and approach to driving. We foreigners must adapt and reconcile ourselves to the Roman driving style – or simply depend on public transportation and the kindness of friends.

The alternative view is provided by Robert Shipley in Driving in Rome?: A Second Opinion. You’ve heard this argument before. It is a boilerplate argument that Americans make every time they refuse to make an effort to figure anything out. Let’s see:

I submit that the rotten drivers know full well what they’re doing, they just happen to feel it’s OK for them – But, of course, never, ever for you! Italy is a nation of scofflaws. It is a national preoccupation to cheat on taxes; thus the necessity for tax-police (Guarda di Finanza) – not unlike Mark Twain’s famous comment, taken as gospel here!

These two arguments seem like part of a larger problem in America. You can see similar approaches to, say, the “War on Terror.” One small group favors understanding and taking into account cultural differences before attempting to meddle in Middle Eastern politics, the other sees the people “over there” as insane hucksters who’d kill for no damn good reason, making them eminently expendable.

Just try something. Write something on the rise of the Nazis. Point out the parallels with 9/11, the “terrorist” who set fire to the Reichstag and the gutting of the German constitution and suspension of Habeas Corpus that followed. You are guaranteed to get an answer in the form of “You fucking idiot, Hitler was just insane. Hitler would attach people for no damn reason. There are no parallels with Hitler. He was just a nut.”

It’s a neat argument. It says, “gee, you don’t have to delve into culture. You just call people idiots.” A position of ignorance absolves you of the necessity to study history. How masterful a way to justify intellectual laziness!

Is ignorance the basis of freedom? For your brain synapses, maybe, but for the world?

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By the way, there’s other evidence coming to light that’s likely to prove Mr. Shipley wrong on another account. Shipley’s belief in a population of “good people” who spend their time driving slowly between the lines and looking for laws to obey seems not to be the safest way to design traffic byways. In Roads Gone Wild the latest and apparently safest way to handle a wide variety of traffic (including pedestrian) is to remove road markings to create a chaos so demanding of attention that traffic flows smoothly and safely. This philosophy is taking Europe by storm.

But it’ll probably never fly in the US.

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Tags: italy | driving