Today while running some errands I pulled into a parking lot that was totally full except for a spot where a guy had parked about a foot into that space. Since I am about the most impatient person ever I made the foolish decision to squeeze into the spot. That’s when I notice his passenger door was freshly keyed. I almost backed out thinking he might retaliate on me if he saw it, but then I figured at 10 o’clock on a Wednesday morning there was a slim chance he had a passenger so I parked there anyway.

When I finish shopping and go to my car I see the whole left side of my car was keyed. Of course I about died, but luckily I had just waxed my car the day before coupled with Mercedes super hard paint most of it came off with some graffiti remover.
There is about a 4 inch area where it dug into the paint and put two 1/8” chips in it.

Now for the bigger picture…
I spend a large amount of my time on the road and have been noticing more and more how people are becoming more self serving. Bullying on the highways and streets has increased many fold. Drivers are spending more time forcing others to drive how they want with tactics like break checking, swerving into others lanes, and even driving in two lanes on highway entrance ramps. What happened to teamwork, can’t we get out of the way of faster moving vehicles, leave openings for people to get out of parking lots etc.?

I am not even sure where this behavior from those who apparently want to be the official pace car of the open road comes from or what rationalizations they use for such behavior but I do know that if every one in the world only cared about their self there could only be one winner. However if people work together as a team maybe we all could get home a little earlier, have room to park, and not have to buff out undeserved key marks from the sides of their cars.

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1984 300D / The only Benz I have

Completed weekend projects

1. R/R front crankshaft seal
2. R/R nearly the whole vacuum system
3. Converted to WVO www.greasemachine.com
4. Upgraded to electric power locks
5. Upgraded and rewired stereo/amp/speakers
6. Installed 2.88 differential

I agree that the rate of increase of incivility ( if that is a term), is increasing. To me, the root cause is nothing more than mere selfishness. My time is more important than your time. I become incensed when people try to butt in front of a hundred other cars that have sucessfully merged where the signage required. They must believe that they're better than the the rest of us. The same applies to the people who hog handicap parking spaces or take up two parking spaces--their special status simply entitles them to behave this way. In actuality, they are simply products of parents who never properly instructed them about living in a society.

Teamwork died and is buried right next to common sense.

Danny

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1984 300SD Turbo Diesel 150,000 miles

OBK member #23

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"products of parents who never properly instructed them about living in a society."

To be more specific they were never taught to respect authority or their fellow man.

Please, don't you young people that frequent this forum think that I mean that ALL young people are not taught this. There are MANY young people who have learned to respect their fellow human beings, but there are seemingly more and more that have less and less respect for authority and their fellow man.

Have a great day,

What is this self serving BS? How is it self serving to ME to park over 2 spots and get my car keyed? How is it self serving if I speed and get in an accident? If you ask me speeders are the most selfless people on the road, they risk damage to their cars and tickets to get off the road faster, oh but there's virtue in selflessness. Whoever keyed the person's car was selfless, they risked their well being (someone could catch them) so that other people could see that this supposedly aimless parker was an *******. Here’s the kicker. You ***** and complain about people’s time being more important that yours, they speed, they park over two spaces, but now…when it comes down to your time what’s important to you? Risk getting my car keyed, or park in a spot. Lets see…park here get keyed or go somewhere else, BUT IT’S MY TIME, WAH WAH WAH. How can you gripe? It’s your own fault your car got keyed, but you blame this guy because he had the gull to park over two spots, you were just dimwitted enough and lazy enough to squeeze into the left over space.

There is no point in making people work towards the common good, as per your observations people can not be forced to conform even to marked white lines in a parking lot. You complain because your parking space was small, but the person on the driver’s side of the car had a huge space, able to swing their door all the way open, how convenient. Now this parker really deserves a medal, yet his car is keyed, I don't get it? He put his car on the line perhaps so someone had some extra room.

When I'm on the road I am extremely SELFISH, I avoid things that may damage MY car, I avoid people who are *******s, I don't flip anyone off, I don't tailgate, I don’t speed because I don’t want insurance to go up, I look out for ME this is because I am SELFISH. I don't want MY car screwed up and I don't want my time used up by an accident, and I don't want my heart to explode because I get all in a huff about people who speed and post about it on the internet. If I were looking out for other people how would I do things differently? Do you want me to sacrifice my well being for the common good of others on the road? While on the highway should I take my eyes off the road to inform people that they are not contributing to the common good?

"America's abundance was created not by public sacrifices to the common good, but by the productive genius of free men who pursued their own personal interests and the making of their own private fortunes. They did not starve the people to pay for America's industrialization. They gave the people better jobs, higher wages, and cheaper goods with every new machine they invented, with every scientific discovery or technological advance- and thus the whole country was moving forward and profiting, not suffering, every step of the way." –Ayn Rand

When you drive down the road and gripe about people’s time being more important think about it, there’s a good chance their time is more important than yours. How important is your time really? When you drive in your Mercedes Benz, built with the utmost attention to detail and respect for perfection realize that there was an engineer who was selfish behind that. There was someone who wanted to say “THAT IS MINE, I BUILT THAT” with pride and daring someone to do it better, to build a more perfect car. Yet you sit there with keyed paint saved only by the wax created by a selfish designer complaining of selfishness, what greater hypocrisy can there be? You need to realize that there is virtue in selfishness perhaps the greatest virtue in the world.
-Nate

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'82 240D, 4-speed, 617 turbo engine

Sounds like you just finished reading The Fountainhead. I think you didn't get out of if what Ayn Rand wanted you to.

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1984 300Sd 210k

Former cars:
1984 300D 445k (!!) (Strider) Original (and not rebuilt) engine and transmission. Currently running on V80 ( 80% vegetable oil, 20% petroleum products). Actually not, taking a WVO break.
1993 300d 2.5 275k. Current 120/day commuter
1981 300SD 188k (Hans) Killed by a deer

Hey way to make a relevant retort to my statements, good job. I read the rand books a few years back, but that quote isn't from her novels.
-Nate

edit: just curious, what exactly did I not "GET" out of the book?

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'82 240D, 4-speed, 617 turbo engine

You need to realize that there is virtue in selfishness perhaps the greatest virtue in the world.

You helped me understand the rationalization part of my question.

I didn’t think it went that far. I had figured people were doing things like watching their rear view and break checking when they felt someone was too close or too fast was out of some sort of obscured theory of how that was for the greater good. You make it sound like an act of aggression from a narcissist.

__________________
1984 300D / The only Benz I have

Completed weekend projects

1. R/R front crankshaft seal
2. R/R nearly the whole vacuum system
3. Converted to WVO www.greasemachine.com
4. Upgraded to electric power locks
5. Upgraded and rewired stereo/amp/speakers
6. Installed 2.88 differential