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Size matters not when in the ditch
 Joe Palmersheim -- Reader´s Advocate
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While driving back home today in this gloriously dismal Minnesota weather, I was struck by how many arrogant drivers there were on the road. Almost without exception, these people were all driving SUVs.
Only in America.
Only in America would a Cadillac not be big enough. Of course, we're the same people who thought cocaine wasn't quite good enough in the 1970s and invented crack. I guess we should have seen it coming.
I don't really care what other people do with their money. However, that doesn't exclude me from having an opinion on it. I think that these folks blowing past me at an unsafe speed in horrible conditions have a sense of security in the fact that they are driving in a vehicle with roughly the same dimension and displacement as a Panzer tank.
I know what makes them confident on the road: four-wheel drive. Engage the system, and no snow drift will stop you. However, there are always idiots who think this makes them completely invincible on the road, and I make it a point to laugh and point at these people while they wait for the tow truck in the ditch.
Seriously, I think that SUVs are not only a choice in vehicular transport, but that they speak volumes about our state of mind. We need power, room and lots of both. I know people who drive to work by themselves in a truck that can comfortably seat eight grown adults. If this was a schoolbus, it would look strange, but if it's a Suburban, no one looks twice.
Let's face it, they build SUVs for the same reason they built the Titanic. That reason, of course, is the male fascination with size (or compensation for the lack therof). The ability to say "Heh heh, mine's bigger than yours" is apparently so desirable that otherwise-sound minds will drop $40,000 for bragging rights.
Americans need self-esteem. We over-compensate with self-help, designer drugs, therapy for our pets and all sorts of other mindless crap. What can we do to end all this indulgence? I don't know the answer to that question, but I'm sure it has nothing to do with driving around in what is basically a glorified station wagon.
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