On getting mowed down

Guten Abend!

In this week's kultur posts, it appears the opening sequence involves getting ran over one way or another. In "Two-Wheeled Teutons, they warn the reader to not stand in the bike path- you will get ran over by a cyclist in a hurry. While i'd like to imagine common sense would prevail and if you see a bike rushing towards you, you wouldn't stay in the middle of it's path, I guess this needed to be said...? (The same logic applied for me in "The Red Dictator". I know in Ann Arbor, the logic doesn't really apply much- pedestrians abuse right-of-way here - but I spend most of my summer's in New York, and there... the philosophy is much more in line with Germany's view. Lets look at it this way: in the event that a person collides with the car, two things will happen: (1)- The car will get dented. That is a few thousand dollars, some time, frustration, and repairs... generally this will want to be avoided. (2)- The person getting hit gets dented. That isn't quite as easy to fix, and in New York some drivers will take it upon themselves as a challenge (like in Germany) to see how close they can get going as fast as they can to scare the stupid pedestrian. (In summary, there was nothing groundbreaking in those first two articles for me, and indeed, it seems very reasonable to me.)

In illogical logic, I find myself torn between amusement and sympathy for any hapless tourist taking the mickey. On the one hand, it appears like it is a glorified game of "I will make this as literal as possible, can you be completely literal?" But on the other hand... I guess this is just a fundamental thought difference that won't make much sense to me. (Why not follow the logical train of thought a few steps further for why they would be purchasing the ticket? This article leaves me confused and not terribly satisfied about it...) On the other hand, Fare Dodgers Beware made perfect sense to me. I personally wish that America -could- run off an honor system, but I cannot see that working too well as values shift. For example, I had my biochemistry exam yesterday and the GSI who was proctoring exited the room. Immediately I caught myself debating checking the answers for the exam (In the end I didn't, as cheating doesn't sit well with me...) but if it even crosses my mind, thats probably not a good thing. I told a few of my friends of my thoughts during the exam and a few looked at me blankly asking why I didn't do it. Das ist nicht gut! In this regard, I find myself envious (if slightly incredulous) of an honor system that can actually work.

And on the other hand once again... the final article (Disorderly Germans) had me confused me than anything else. I eventually decided (after staring blankly at the article for a minute) that the goal was to poke fun at the Germany philosophy/emphasis on Order (capitalization intentional!). Even then, I don't really see what function this serves, but nevertheless... kind of like the article on Getting Naked with the Germans- But in that case, i'll just peg that to a societal difference and move on with my life.

Well, I guess that is it this week!

Tschuess!