The hot debate of a car pool

JAKARTA (JP): With the three-in-one road rule refusing to go away, car pools are gradually taking hold. This, no doubt, makes traveling by car colorless. Yet car rides, shared or otherwise, have an irresistible allure.

This car pool was one of five. The time spent in traveling was a verbal joust, usually of a storm-in-a-tea-cup variety. Out of the five, two of the passengers were listeners, and to them silence was golden; the third, a cynic who was convinced that there was nothing redeeming in human nature; the fourth, a bully who was convinced that he was always right; and the fifth, a mischief maker, deft in both muddying and fishing in troubled waters.

That day, we initially rode in silence. Until the cynic chose to break it. He said, "Reading The Jakarta Post while riding in a car has become addictive because it helps one avoid the sight of bus passengers huddling on the sidewalks." The insinuation was that car passengers felt comfortable with not noticing the world outside.

The mischief maker saw the possibility for some fireworks. He gently stoked, "Now I know why the Post readers insist that only car passengers face traffic problems. Mimicking ostriches, they bury their heads in the Post."

His remark brought the bully, unabashedly in favor of traveling by car, into the conversation. He said, "The number of people traveling by car is better proof of economic progress than a mass of lifeless statistics."

The cynic, now fully alert, saw an opportunity to needle the bully. He condemned traveling by car, saying that humans' preference for it turned them into predators.

The bully, who saw car passengers as role models in a society dedicated to materialism, resented the slur as unwarranted and mischievous. He asserted that the biggest common denominator between humans was selfishness and that, after a protracted worldwide debate, it was now agreed that it was the most potent economic stimulant and a boon.

"Allow selfishness full freedom, everyone eventually travels by car," he challenged.

The cynic promptly attacked the bully, "Don't be heartless, dangling illusions of traveling by car before unfortunate people."

At this point the mischief maker, who was interested in keeping the tiff going, pitched in, "Yes. He's right. Why should you create false expectations?"

The bully rose to the occasion. "Everyone harbors hope, you bums, not illusions."

So he roared and went on, "Today, why walk? For exercise? But all our forefathers walked. How come the change? Simple. Time has not stood still. Time is not only a celebrated healer but also a remarkable achiever. Economic history is full of miracles wrought by mere passage of time. Like parallel lines meeting at infinity, in good time every one will travel by car."

The cynic enjoyed manipulating the bully, and asked him, "Look, are you, by any chance, mocking?"

"No," the bully shot back. He remonstrated that just because someone had to wait for a ride, it did not mean he was either deprived or denied. He, however, quickly relented a bit and condescended to exorcise the pain in waiting.

"Waiting and passage of time are ordained and inevitable, as it takes time to make cars, roads, etc. and to harmonize environmental standards with an increase in car numbers."

"You are right," the cynic quipped. "We are all beholden to selfishness. Indeed, it must be upgraded from an icon to a deity."

The mischief maker, interpolated that there was a serious mix- up between enlightened self-interest and rapacious selfishness.

This touched an evangelic button in the bully. As he angrily started "Only infidels...," the car pool dispersed.

Just then four persons from a rival car pool came walking towards them. The bully inquired why they were walking.

"Oh, we travel by bus once a week so that we know what to do if the car pool fails," said one of them.

"What a great drill," admired the mischief maker. "Really, my foot," he said. "This is how car owners happen to starve the poor three-in-one kids."

-- G.S. Edwin