German road rage
German road rage is different than American road rage. They are not allowed to have guns here, for instance. And rest assured that I have thanked my lucky stars on more than one occasion that this is the case. Because, well, other than that, it's much worse here.
It's more common, you see. It's normal here. You will never find a clearer cut case of that Dr. Jäckle and Mr. Heidel syndrome than right here behind the German steering wheel. Religious do-gooders, pacifists, the sweetest, little-old-lady kind of lady, you name it, they all go berserk if you give them a set of car keys. The aggression is palpable; they are looking for a fight.
They yell and holler and scream a lot. They honk at everything that gets in their way. They speed up when they see pedestrians crossing the street in front of them (apparently a sign of disrespect). They always have the right of way. What is worse, they are always right. But that's another story.
My theory: once they find themselves behind all of that steel and glass and airbag material they actually believe themselves to be invisible. They really believe it. No one can recognize them anymore. They have become anonymous and are no longer responsible for their actions. They are free. And that's when all of this pent up aggression breaks through and they start frothing around the mouth (I've only actually seen that happen twice, however).
And where does all of this pent up aggression come from? I'm not really sure if I want to know that right now or not.
