Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Hitchhiking

You know I never understood the fear of hitchhiking...

Perhaps its because i grew up in New Zealand where there is a small population thus less crazies. I have family in America and i told them that i intended to go hitchhiking for a while and they immediately responded with "Oh you can't do that! its so dangerous! you could get attacked or killed!" I responded by saying something to the effect of "do you honestly believe that as soon as you get into a car with a stranger that they are going to instantly want to rape and or murder you?" they responded, quite offended at that, by saying that they are just trying to look out for my best interests and they know that hitchhiking is dangerous.

When did we become this fearful of our fellow man? Was it the mass media that convinced us that any person that wasn't intimately known by us was out to kill us? How did we become so parilysed by fear? By this same logic that they are using i shouldn't go into a church or a community building for fear of getting violated in some way. How do these people make friends? I like to think on my idealistic days that humans don't try to go out of their way to harm other people do other not share this view?

Personally the reason why i hitch is because its free, a hell of alot faster than walking and i get to meet new people. Granted, not every person i meet is nice or interesting its still a better way to travel.

I talked to my american cousins more on this subject and they said they would never EVER pick up a hitch hiker "because it could be anyone!" That is the fucking point! do you not find it interesting to meet new people? where is your charitable instinct? Lastly and once again HOW CAN YOU ASSUME EVERYONE IS OUT TO GET YOU?

ok. i feel like im rehashing the same shit but god damn i get pissed at this shit.
PICK UP HITCHHIKERS.
we don't bite.

20 comments:

  1. Bus ride home + wait : aprox. 45 minutes
    hitch home: 10 minutes

    Win!

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  2. Fear of being stabbed by some one you're helping out by picking up... I dunno if it's justified, but it sure seems ass-backwards to me. You're doing the person a favour.

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  3. Its gotten pretty rare to see hitchers these days

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  4. A lot of people are afraid that their fellow man is like them.

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  5. As an American i see where your family is coming from. Most normal people fear hitchhikers so they don't pick them up. The people that do pick up hitchhikers here in America tend to be a little bit off. Other than that I'd love to go somewhere I could hitchhike.

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  6. I don't know, I feel like the media and people in general tend to perpetuate the idea that there's always stranger danger. I'm not sure if I could hitch hike across america myself, I wouldn't really mind trying to though. But I don't know about picking anyone up, I don't drive anywhere and haven't encountered any hitchers yet but I'm not sure if I would pick anyone up if I saw them. I guess I would judge them by how they looked and then decide whether or not to pick them up. I imagine if I did pick anyone up nothing would ever happen anyway.

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  7. Well hitchhikers here always seem really trashy. Therefore scary.

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  8. I totally agree to this, I was trying to hitch-hike in the city area once. No one would pick me up, I was really annoyed because I've picked up hikers and no one would repay the favour!

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  9. hitchhiking is just one of many ways to get around for free. honestly I only hitchhiked twice in my entire life. the other times I simply rode aboard a freight train. No joke. Lol

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  10. I'm afraid of other people because every damned person around here carries guns, knives, or both.

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  12. Interesting. I won't be picking up any hitchhikers until I'm 21 and can buy a handgun. Not that I would be killing these people but if they tried anything I'd be prepared. The kind of people who hitchhike aren't ALWAYS the kind who want to brutally assrape or murder people but then you never REALLY know about people do you? Guess its kind of like one of those better safe than sorry kind of things.

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  13. Tried to hitchhike once, Didn't get picked up. Just beeped at. gave up and walked home.

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  14. good point man A+ :D

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  15. well im afraid too, but fuck that!

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  16. I'm from Ukraine. There, you can hitchhike effectively just about anywhere. Stick out your thumb, a guy will eventually stop, you figure out if both of you are going the same way. Only catch is that you will then agree to a price, usually about $1-$5.

    So much better than cabs, though!

    and the streetcars cost $0.10 last time I was there, unf unf unf

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