German culture, or so I’m told from all the books I’ve been reading about it lately, teaches its own that life is mostly a zero sum game.  This, so I’m told, follows from the fact of Germany being a small nation that is very tightly packed with people.  The attitude is that if you have more of something it means someone else has less.  This is in contrast to American culture which teaches us (or tries to) that life is what you make of it and wealth is something you create, not something you merely acquire.  On the plus side, their attitude gives Germans a strong sense of social responsibility and mutual obligation to one another.  Not as much as some Asian cultures maybe, but compared to my own native land it’s very striking.  German corporations, so I am told, will bend over backwards not to fire anyone, compared to here in the U.S. where employers treat staff like paperclips to be used and disposed of at will.  On the minus side…well hello there Karl Marx…Baader-Meinhof…  Oh…and the paper hanger…

German culture, so I’m told, tends to frown on ostentatious displays of wealth, which isn’t so very odd when you consider the circumstances of Germany, but then again it is when you consider who manufactures BMWs, Porsche, Mercedes-Benz…and…oh yes…the Maybach.  The books I’m reading about German culture make the point over and over that Germans don’t like it when wealth is waved around in everyone’s face.  Yet…the Maybach.  Okay…there’s Volkswagon.  But…the Maybach.  You imagine them exporting Maybachs shamefacedly in the dead of night in containers labeled Glühwein.  If only we didn’t have to make this half million dollar V12 luxury sedan with reclining massage seats and a wine cooler in armrest for all those other decadent nations we could be a proud people once more… 

But no… Germans like their cars very much, and that is why there are both Volkswagons and Maybachs.  People here in America used to point their fingers and laugh at the old Volkswagon Beetle, but that stopped when gas prices started going up and our big three tried to make decent gas efficient sub-compact cars and couldn’t.  And they still can’t.  If we loved cars here in America as much as we claim to, maybe GM wouldn’t be needing a bailout now to keep tens of thousands of its employees and that third of the American workforce that depends on the car industry gainfully employed.  No…what we love here in America is showing off.   Here in America it’s not about the car, its about the owner.  In Europe, it’s about the car, and Germans love the automobile.  But a good car is expensive because it just costs more to go the extra distance in terms of engineering and quality, and Germans don’t like ostentatious displays of wealth either.  So like many passionate love affairs, German fondness for the automobile is just a little bit schizophrenic.

I’m thinking about all this while reading This Article in The Local about a recent rash of attacks on luxury cars in Berlin.  And since I am the owner of what is ostensibly a luxury car, reading it makes me more then a tad apprehensive.  I’ve known ever since I bought Traveler, that I’m likely one of these days to come out and find that someone walking past laid eyes on a Mercedes-Benz and decided then and there to let me know how much they hate rich people, and never mind that its owner isn’t rich.  But that I could forgive.  When you see the gods of finance throwing parties with bailout money it’s not hard to have a really bad attitude toward the fabulously well off.  What I couldn’t forgive is someone who damages my car because they hate the sight of human excellence.

Arson attacks on Berlin’s luxury cars continue

Several luxury cars have been set alight in the capital in the past week in what is beginning to look like a concerted attack on conspicuous wealth. Seven expensive cars were found burning in the city on Tuesday night, while another 15 were damaged by the flames. Early Friday morning a car was found burning in Christinenstrasse in the Prenzlauer Berg district.

Another six cars were consumed in a large fire early on Sunday morning in Michendorf near Potsdam. Nearby houses were also seriously damaged.

Of course the car in the accompanying photo is a Mercedes…

Ow!  That hurts just to look at.  Looks like it might be an older model ‘E’ class.  But…with a decorative spoiler?  I can’t believe Mercedes would actually do that to one of their sedans. 

Listen Che…if it’s parked on the street next to a parking meter, it’s not a rich man’s car you drooling jackass.  You think the CEO of AIG drives an ‘E’ class?  You think the vice president at Exxon in charge of putting things on top of other things drives an ‘E’ class?  What planet do you live on?  That’s a working person’s car and if you think the distance between that ‘E’ class and a Kia Rio makes the Merc a luxury car you have obviously never laid eyes on a Bentley.  You think that fat bloated pig of an Exxon CEO even drives his own motherfucking car, let alone parks it on the street, let alone wants to be seen anywhere near an ‘E’ class?  As far as people like him are concerned, that car and its owner and you are all commoner junk.

You may think you’re sticking it to The Establishment, but in reality you’re still dancing for it.  Not only does the owner of that car hate you now, but so does everyone else seeing it, holding onto hope for a better life for themselves.  They look at this and they don’t see The Establishment is holding them down, they see you holding them down.  And that’s the way The Establishment likes it.

Grow up.