What do Karl Marx, honking, dead motorcyclists and car drivers have in common ?
From Karl Marx’s thinking, we see something called class struggle. Yes, conflict arises out two groups of people, namely labor vs capitalist. One claiming to be doing the greater good for another, but both ended up in conflict.
A few weeks ago, while I was cycling near rice paddy field and enjoying the soft breeze, a motorcycle came from behind and gave me soft honk, I was startled a bit and realized I was riding to the wrong side of otherwise winding road. I was too carried away with the view and I nearly ended up riding into the mud. After about 5 mins, I rode up to a small stall and saw the Malay chap that honked me earlier, I said “Thank you” to him. He was rather surprised with my friendly gesture, in some way, disbelief.
Why is that ?
If you have been to Penang (driving a car) with many motorcyclists buzzing around the traffic, you will understand why. The motorcyclist just hate car drivers honking them from behind. In some way, many view this as “class struggle” of rich 4 wheeler vs the poor on the two wheeler . I usually honked motorcyclists that rode out of line or wiggling in and out of traffic. No malicious intention without exception and discrimination, just want to remind them I am coming and if they hit me, it will be painful or even fatal. So, did any of the motorcyclists ever appreciated my gesture of warning them of imminent danger ? Zilch. Well, that is why, due to that motorcyclist behavior of ignorant of honking and seeing danger, many of them ended up dead, no, I did not run over them.
Now, why did the Malay chap even surprised to hear me saying “Thank you”, well, in his mind, I had to be very angry with the honking but instead I was not, it looked like the same form of exploitation he suffered while on the road.
For motorcyclist to have that kind of mindset, is more like class struggle kind of thing. Just because they (probably) cannot afford a car, does not mean that they should be subjected to exploitation on the road. They perceived car drivers as bully(capitalist), they see themselves as being under privilege , therefore car drivers need to forgive their reckless behavior, any form of gesture is to deny them their rights to be on the road.
Just as today, I was crossing Penang bridge, it started to drizzle and suddenly all motorcyclist just slow down and stopped at the side of the narrow bridge regardless of any car coming from the back, a few cars actually honked and I could see some motorcyclist were showing some fingers. To me, I honked because I care, for those drivers that hardly care, they will just run them over.
Some article about motorcyclist death.
There you have it, the connection. Ignorant of friendly warning, one party see it to be friendly warning, another see it as class exploitation.
-woody
