Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Stefan Gössling
Elsevier
Radarweg 29, PO Box 211, 1000 AE Amsterdam, Netherlands
The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford OX5 1GB, United Kingdom
50 Hampshire Street, 5th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage
and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Details on how to
seek permission, further information about the Publisher’s permissions policies and our
arrangements with organizations such as the Copyright Clearance Center and the Copyright
Licensing Agency, can be found at our website: www.elsevier.com/permissions.
This book and the individual contributions contained in it are protected under copyright by the
Publisher (other than as may be noted herein).
Notices
Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research and
experience broaden our understanding, changes in research methods, professional practices,
or medical treatment may become necessary.
Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in
evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein.
In using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the
safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility.
To the fullest extent of the law, neither the Publisher nor the authors, contributors, or editors,
assume any liability for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of
products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods,
products, instructions, or ideas contained in the material herein.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-0-12-811008-9
Figure 1.1 Growth emissions of CO2 from the transport sector, 1900–2050.10
Figure 2.1 Factors influencing transport behavior.37
Figure 3.1 Driver-car coidentities: capabilities.65
Figure 6.1 Development of speed records (km/h after 1 km).122
Figure 6.2 Average motorization of newly registered vehicles, Germany.123
Figure 6.3 Differential speeds in urban space.131
Figure 7.1 New car registrations in Germany: percentages April 2015
compared to previous year.146
Figure 7.2 Interrelationships of government, police, and car drivers.153
Figure 9.1 Fatal accidents, Isle of Man TT.191
Figure 11.1 Real versus perceived structures of car dependency.233
Figure 12.1 Urban modal split transition in a radically different transport
future scenario.244
Figure 12.2 Inducing change in transport behavior.245
List of Tables
Plate 5.1 Indicating a good mate? Bentley signaling resourcefulness and protection.108
Plate 5.2 The car as expression of maleness, power, and dominance: Brabus 500.109
Plate 5.3 “Fuck,” a new alcoholic drink presented at a car exhibition, Germany.114
Plate 5.4 Car exhibitions and the female object: Autosalon Genève, Switzerland.115
Plate 6.1 Marketing focused on speed: Corvette.127
Plate 6.2 Female reactions to fast cars.130
Plate 6.3 Australian campaign to address speeding.136
Plate 6.4 Child in car simulator video game.138
Plate 7.1 German campaign “Reduce your speed!”140
Plate 7.2 Automobile rights and contested space.142
Plate 7.3 Closer to the public: female police on bikes, Paris, France.144
Plate 7.4 Deliberate (?) parking violation.148
Plate 7.5 Historic Beetle used to curry sympathy for police.153
Plate 7.6 Too much government?169
Plate 8.1 Sociality in motion (and stasis): the home from home
as microcommunity.179
Plate 8.2 Car community: race team celebration in Hockenheim, Germany.180
Plate 8.3 An offer of community: car lobbying organization in search
of new members.184
Plate 9.1 A celebrity death crash site turned tourist attraction.189
Plate 9.2 NASCAR crash: how important is the prospect of death
in the appeal of races?192
Plate 9.3 James Hunt winning the Formula 1 World Championship in 1976.199
Plate 10.1 Public transport infrastructure as space of fear.213
Plate 10.2 A scenic drive, killing time, or a reflection of a mood disorder?216
Plate 11.1 Car order.230
Plate 11.2 A more desirable transport future?231
Plate 11.3 Initiative to challenge car domination.234
Plate 11.4 Be aware of government: information on taxation at German fuel station.237
Plate 11.5 Parking violations unchallenged: evidence of a tipping point?239
Plate 12.1 Like father, like son: Rolls-Royce admiration.242
Plate 12.2 Positive communication: “We respect each other” campaign in Freiburg,
Germany.248
Plate 12.3 Cycling as major transport mode in Copenhagen, Denmark.249
Plate 12.4 Increasing perceived safety (with a view): physically separated
cycle track along the river in Brisbane.252
Plate 12.5 Incentive system: car charger stations in Paris.255
Plate 12.6 Warning labels on gas pumps.257
Plate 12.7 Gas pump label design as suggested by industry.258
Plate 12.8 One possible future: car-free island of Juist, Germany.259
Preface
Perhaps a book on the “psychology of the car” demands a positioning of the author.
As probably most readers of this book, I have been socialized in a car-centric world.
Growing up in a suburban area about 5 km outside a medium-sized town in North
Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, most of my childhood memories are entangled in trans-
port dependency; we went to school by bus, were taken to sports practice by car, and
drove to see family or friends on weekends. I got my driving license 08-08-88, a magic
date marking independence more than my 18th birthday a day earlier. Soon after, the
car afforded my first better-paid student job as a newspaper photographer and free-
lancer. I also associate the car with first escapes, driving nowhere in particular in the
middle of the night with a friend, movement being a goal in its own right. The car was
the means of transport during my first “real” holiday, a trip to Spain with my girlfriend
(and later wife) at the age of 22. We drifted “south” in search of October warmth, and
prayed that the car, her father’s aged VW Golf, wouldn’t break down. Countless trips
have been made by car since then, and we (still) own a small car today. However, trains
became our favorite transport mode a long time ago, and as a family, we nowadays
associate highways with congestion and stress, places to avoid.
Yet, this is only half the story of my relationship with the car. In my childhood days
in the 1970s, suburban structures were different. In most small communities, there
existed a local post office, a bank, an ice cream parlor, a restaurant, and a local mini-
market, catering to a few thousand people (these are long gone). Because everything
you needed was close by, people walked or cycled. I have been told that I rode my little
bicycle to the day care center for the first time when I was 3 years old. When I turned
7, school required a longer trip, which I later made by bike as well. Today, this would
probably pass as a serious case of parental neglect, as I had to ride along a major road
with a 100 km/h speed limit and no safety strip, and I remember cars flying by in a
blur while pedaling up the hill. At the age of 16, it took all my savings to buy a British
racing bike, which brought independence and speed. I loved that silver, smooth bike,
and even today, riding a bike continues to represent my idea of freedom.
Our daughter was born into this constellation in 2005. She surprised us when her
first word was bil (Swedish for “car”), bearing evidence of the great fascination cars
have for children. At the age of two and a half, she told her astonished parents from
xxii Preface
the back seat of the car that “When I am grown up, I will buy a car and drive around
all day.” At the age of 6, she began walking to primary school every morning, and
later on, at the age of 10, she started to ride her bike to the new school 2 km away. At
12, she has an ambivalent relationship with cars, which she occasionally likes (to be
taken someplace), though normally despises because she knows that cars contribute to
climate change and air pollution. Such views are not necessarily the norm. My wife,
a teacher in a rural area, recently asked third-graders how they imagined their lives as
grown-ups. The children agreed on only one thing: they would all own a car.
Why this book, then? Perhaps, on the most basic level, it is a matter of curiosity.
When you live in a car-centered world, you want to make sense of it. I am also fasci-
nated with traffic emotions. As a bicyclist, I have been shot angry looks, yelled at, and
been (almost) run over more often than I care to remember. As a driver and passenger
in a car, I have seen all sorts of reckless driving, and witnessed the death of a young
woman in an accident. There is aggressiveness in the automotive system that has trou-
bled me for a long time. During the research for this book, I told my daughter about
car “faces,” and asked her what she would make of a car with four headlights. She
did not have to think: “It’s a monster.” Perhaps this is what I have had on my mind all
along, that a world without monsters must be a more desirable one.
This book is consequently about change. It is meant to contribute to an understand-
ing of the psychological roots of automobile culture, through which it becomes possi-
ble to envision, design, and implement futures in which cars lose relevance. There is a
growing movement questioning cars. Governments have started to realize that the car
is heavily subsidized, with evidence that each driven kilometer incurs a cost to society
not covered by taxes, charges, and fees. The car reduces quality of life in cities, and it
requires vast areas of land for road infrastructure and parking. Health concerns related
to air pollution have emerged worldwide, while the lack of activity of automobile pop-
ulations is measurable in increasing numbers of people who are overweight and obese.
More than 1 million people die every year in traffic accidents, and up to 50 million are
injured. Climate change is caused to a large degree by transport emissions. For all of
these reasons, we need to rethink the automotive system.
However, actual evidence of change is more limited. New car registrations continue
to grow, with expectations of 2 billion cars by 2030, one for every four humans. Many
people now spend more time commuting than they are given for their annual holiday.
Car sizes, weight, and motorization continue to grow, while nobody would seriously
expect political initiatives to significantly curb automobility since the backlash from
automobile lobbies is known to be unforgiving. There is also an ominous silence in
society on the impacts of the automobile system, and unwillingness to discuss its
implications. More people are killed by cars every year than in battle during World
War II. The automotive system demands a sacrifice that we are curiously willing to
offer.
Observations such as these require a new look at automobility, and this book
seeks to understand our fundamental love of cars. It provides a wide range of (old
and new) perspectives on automobile admiration, attachment, and addiction. Its most
notable insight is perhaps that we are not as much dependent on the car as being
made dependent. There are powerful interests at work to psychologically engineer car
Preface xxiii
Stefan Gössling
Freiburg and Köpingsvik, February 2017
Acknowledgments
José: “In this country you ain’t nothing if you got no wheels.”
The Gumball Rally (1976)
Many people have supported this book, directly and indirectly. First and foremost,
without the inspiration and insight of Mathias Gößling, this book would not exist.
Mathias’s patience in explaining the world to me has made me realize the fundamental
importance of psychology for transport behavior. Mathias also provided the analysis
for several discussions in this book, including the recognition and interpretation of
Oedipal constellations in Transformers, and the focus on childhood neglect as a mar-
keting strategy in Volkswagen’s “Darth Vader” commercial. His paper on communi-
cative violence and personality disorder in the context of car advertisement (Gößling
and Eckert, 2008) reveals the powerful forces of marketing appeal, and the complex
and profound analyses needed to understand these interrelationships. This book is
dedicated to Mathias, because it is owed to his insights.
My family, Meike and Linnea, have been immensely helpful in discussing many
of the issues taken up in this book. Meike is a sharp analyst of the human psyche,
and contributed many insights. Linnea is a driving force in my disentangling of our
human-environmental relations. She demands to know why the world is the way it is
and forces me to reconsider the “rationality” of the human enterprise. Behavior is an
open book for those who wish to understand, though more often we seem to prefer not
to. I hope that Linnea will be able to live in a future with fewer cars, for the simple
reason that this would indicate that the world has gained in empathy.
Many requests for permission to reproduce material were sent to car manufactur-
ers, car rental companies, automobile lobby organizations, and marketing agencies.
Virtually all had in common that they either declined permission or insisted on such
complex contracts that it was no longer meaningful to pursue inclusion in the book.
This is unfortunate, because some issues discussed in this book would have profited
from illustrations. While this confirms that the automotive world is a secretive one, I
am indebted in particular to Volkswagen, Mercedes, and Porsche for supporting me
with photographic material in nonbureaucratic and efficient ways.
Without colleagues and collaboration, science cannot exist. I am extremely grateful
to C. Michael Hall and Daniel Scott, colleagues and friends, for 15 years of collab-
oration on environmental and developmental questions. I am also indebted to many
colleagues in various places (in no particular order): Carlo Aall, Torkjel Solbraa, Ivar
Petter Grøtte, Hans Jakob Walnum, Svein Ølnes, Otto Andersen, Eivind Brendehaug,
Halvor Dannevig, Agnes Brudvik Engeset, Guttorm Flatabø, Martin Gren, Johan
Hultman, Jan Henrik Nilsson, Janet Dickinson, Daniel Metzler, Kaely Dekker, Julia
xxvi Acknowledgments
Hibbert, James Higham, Paul Peeters, Eke Eijgelaar, Dietrich Brockhagen, Robert
Bockermann, Brent Ritchie, Robert Steiger, Bruno Abegg, Ghislain Dubois, Jean-
Paul Ceron, Jens-Kristian Steen Jacobsen, Carlos Martin-Rios, Wolfgang Strasdas,
Dagmar Lund-Durlacher, Werner Gronau, Debbie Hopkins, Jo Guiver, Yael Ram,
Anna Katarina Elofsson, Sara Dolnicar, Scott Cohen, Hansruedi Müller, Philipp
Späth, Samuel Mössner, Tim Freytag, Bernard Lane, Andy Maun, Ralf Buckley,
David Weaver, Holger Schäfers, Nathan and Antoinette Franklin, Veit Bürger, and Jan
and Julia Bergk. I am also indebted to hundreds of colleagues who “paved the way”
for this book through their work; Helga Dittmar and Linda Steg in particular deserve
to be mentioned, as the book relies in considerable part on the distinction of symbolic,
affective, and instrumental car values. I humbly apologize to anyone whose work I
have misinterpreted or presented in insufficient detail.
Various people contributed to valuable discussions and insights with direct and
indirect relevance for this book, including Sabine Bode, Christer Ljungberg, Peter
Brandauer, Roman Molitor, Niels Jensen, Marie Kåstrup, Frank Schreier III, Andreas
Hege, Thomas Vodde, Robert Shirkey, and Patrik Müller. I am also indebted to the
Freiburg traffic police corps, who devoted considerable time to valuable and insightful
interviews. For sharing alternative forms of mobility, thanks to Markus Hierl, Dirk
Niehues, Michael Metz, and Guifré Ruiz Acero. Paul Hanna read parts of an earlier
version of the manuscript (all mistakes remain my own). Katinka Hurst helped to
prepare the book for publication, investing much time and energy. I am also indebted
to Brian Romer at Elsevier for giving the title a chance, and Kattie Washington for
her patience in dealing with many issues in the publication process. Punithavathy
Govindaradjane has been an immensely helpful production project manager.
My special thanks go to all politicians who dare to advocate alternative trans-
port futures. In Germany, they include Barbara Hendricks, Winfried Hermann,
Anton Hofreiter, Boris Palmer, Karl Langensteiner-Schönborn, and Helmut Thoma.
Worldwide, personalities that deserve to be mentioned include Arnold Schwarzenegger,
who implemented low-pollution laws in California; Isabella Lövin, who pushed for a
70% emissions reduction in the Swedish transport sector; Klaus Bondham, who main-
streamed bicycle culture in Copenhagen; and Peter Brandauer, who explored (and
explores) new transport cultures in Werfenweng, Austria. It takes guts to think dif-
ferently, to challenge the automotive system. These individuals (and many others not
mentioned here) deserve to be praised for rethinking automobile order.
The Automotive System
1
Manager [amid noise from racing cars starting up]: “Ah, what music! They could
never have imagined it, those pioneers who invented the automobile, that it would
possess us like this, in our imaginations, our dreams.”
Rush (2013)
(Newman and Kenworthy, 2015). In the 1950s, and in particular the 1960s, the car
then became the epitome of the American dream, and was closely associated with
prosperity, freedom, and independence (Graves-Brown, 1997; Kerr, 2002).
Similar developments took place in Europe. In Germany, debates in 1912 focused
on the question as to whether pedestrians should be blamed for their own death if
involved in accidents with cars (Sachs, 1984). In the 1930s, Volkswagen and the build-
ing of a national highway system became an opportunity for Hitler to interlink the
country and to promote unity (Sachs, 1984). In the 1970s, the car became a sym-
bol of mass participation in the development of social democracy (Miller, 2001), and
German transport minister Georg Leber, a social democrat, suggested in 1966 that:
“no German should live farther than 20 km from the next highway ramp” (BBSR,
2012: no page). The car became central to the German understanding of modernity,
which may in no small part have been inspired by the wish to leave behind the trauma
of World War II. Access to the highway system became a key focus of national politics
with long-lasting consequences. Today, 94% of the German population can reach the
next highway in less than 30 min (Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban
Affairs and Spatial Development, 2012).
Automotive hegemony was a pan-European phenomenon of the 1950s and 1960s,
in which functionalism and notions of “the modern city” inspired urban planning
(e.g., Koglin and Rye, 2014; Sutton, 2015). This also included social housing devel-
opments in urban peripheries, which were “often poorly connected to centres of
urban commerce” (Miciukiewicz and Vigar, 2012: p. 1943). Urban planning neces-
sitating automobility became a norm, and as outlined by Lucas (2006: p. 802), a
result of continued UK transport policies focusing on the car is that it is now “virtu-
ally impossible to carry out basic daily activities without a car” in many parts of the
country. In most parts of Europe, walking and cycling became “irrelevant” transport
modes in the 1960s, and in particular the bicycle was increasingly considered as a
means of leisure transportation (Koglin and Rye, 2014). Transport planning focused
on the expected growth in individual motorized mobility, based on “predict and
provide” planning principles (Hutton, 2013; Whitelegg, 1997). Large-scale road
construction, including urban highways (Nuhn and Hesse, 2006) within neoliberal
frameworks of market-based “demand” assessments (Beyazit, 2011) became the
norm (Plate 1.1). Similar processes have more recently taken place in Asia, where
private cars have replaced bicycles (Gilbert and Perl, 2008; Hook and Replogle,
1996; Pucher et al., 2007).
Table 1.1 shows how vehicle numbers have grown in large economies since the
1960s. In the period 1960–2002, they increased at least threefold in the United States
and up to 100-fold in China. Worldwide, vehicle ownership has now reached 1236 mil-
lion (2014; Statista, 2016). In the future, this trend is projected to continue. Dargay
et al. (2007) model vehicle ownership as a function of income, concluding that there
will be more than 2 billion vehicles by 2030. In 2002, about a quarter of all vehi-
cles in the world were owned by non- Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) countries, but this is anticipated to change by 2030, when 56%
of all vehicles are expected to be owned by people living in non-OECD countries. Huo
et al. (2007) project, for example, that vehicle growth in China will continue to 2050,
4 The Psychology of the Car
reaching 486–662 million. Notably, China is now a larger car market than the United
States, expected to grow at an annual rate of 8% (passenger cars) and 12% in the lux-
ury car market between 2014 and 2020 (Research and Markets, 2016).
An important aspect related to vehicle ownership is use, i.e., the number of miles or
km traveled per year. Transport demand is essentially a function of income, first dis-
cussed by Yacov Zahavi (1974), who proposed that humans everywhere in the world
spend a fixed amount of time for daily travel, defined as the travel time budget (TTB).
Zahavi also proposed that individuals spend a fixed amount of money on travel, the
travel money budget (TMB), thus hypothesizing that average travel time and average
share of income spent on transport are equal between societies. This was empirically
tested and confirmed by Schafer (1998), who compared studies of TTBs and TMBs over
a wide range of countries. TTBs and TMBs have since been used for modeling global
mobility development on the basis of “income” as the singular most important explana-
tory variable of mobility growth (e.g., Schafer, 1998).
Depending on income, transport demand will grow as it is a function of the speed
that can be purchased—with higher incomes, travelers have access to faster trans-
port modes, which increase overall distances traveled even though average travel
times remain constant. Metz (2013) suggests, for instance, that the average annual
distance traveled in Britain increased from 1000 to 7000 miles/year (surface travel)
over two centuries. Even though there is now a proposition that per capita road
transport demand is stabilizing in developed countries (e.g., Metz, 2013), or even
declining (Newman, 2016), this needs to be seen in light of the growing importance
of aviation. Schafer and Victor (2000) suggest that global transport demand was
23 trillion passenger kilometers (pkm) in 2000, a figure that would grow almost
fourfold to 105 trillion pkm by 2050. This scenario was updated more recently, with
data indicating that global transport demand had already reached 38 trillion pkm in
2005, and that by 2050, a population of 9.1 billion people would travel 104–150 tril-
lion pkm per year (Schäfer et al., 2009).
A large share of all travel is by car, which increased from close to zero before
1910 to a global average of 2000 pkm/year in the 1990s (Gilbert and Perl, 2008: p.
66) to almost 9500 pkm/year in the European Union (EU)-27 (in 2010; EC, 2012).
National studies reveal considerable differences in mobility demand, however, both
between countries and within countries. For instance, average per capita mobility in
the United Kingdom was 29 pkm/day in 1995/1997 (Schafer, 2000), and 33 pkm/day
in Norway (1992; Høyer, 2001), Switzerland (1994; Schafer, 2000), and Germany
(1995; BVM, 1996). In Australia, Lenzen (1999) reported 44 pkm/day, and in Sweden,
daily travel was 45 pkm in 2000 (SCB/SIKA, 2001). The highest values were reported
for the United States at 62 pkm/day in 1995 (Schafer, 2000). With the exception of
the United States, per capita transport demand in developed cities has continued
to increase since the 1990s, albeit at lower annual growth rates (Newman, 2016).
Newman (2016) also highlights considerable differences of transport demand within
cities, with, for instance, less than 9500 km driven per capita in Adelaide, Australia,
in 2011, compared to about 12,000 km in Canberra. A notable decline in car trans-
port demand is evident in a wide range of Australian cities since 2007. Estimates for
industrialized countries show that about half of all mobility (40 pkm/day/person) is
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
tiesimme kaikki, että prokuraattori otti talossaan Mitjan vastaan aivan
vastoin tahtoaan, ainoastaan siksi, että prokuraattorin rouva jostakin
syystä piti tätä hauskana miehenä, — prokuraattorin rouva, joka oli
mitä sivein ja kunnioitettavin, ja joka mielellään erinäisissä
tapauksissa, etupäässä pikkuasioissa, pani puolisonsa tahtoa
vastaan. Mitja oli muuten käynyt heidän kodissaan jokseenkin
harvoin.) Siitä huolimatta rohkenen otaksua, — jatkoi puolustaja, —
että niinkin itsenäisesti ajattelevassa ja luonteeltaan oikeamielisessä
miehessä kuin minun opponenttini on, on saattanut syntyä onnetonta
klienttiäni kohtaan jossakin määrin harhaan osunut ennakkoluulo. Oi,
sehän on niin luonnollista: onneton mies on täysin ansainnut, että
häneen suhtaudutaan jopa ennakkoluuloisestikin. Ja loukattu
siveellinen tunne, sekä vieläkin enemmän loukattu esteettinen tunne,
ei toisinaan voi heltyä. Tietysti lahjakkaan syyttäjän puheessa me
kaikki kuulimme ankaran analyysin syytetyn luonteesta ja teoista,
ankaran kriitillisen suhtautumisen asiaan, ja ennen kaikkea esitettiin
niin syviä psykologisia tarkasteluja asian olemuksen selvittämiseksi
meille, että perehtyminen näihin syvyyksiin ei ollenkaan ole
mahdollinen, jos suhtautuu jossakin määrinkin tarkoituksellisesti ja
pahansuovasti syytetyn persoonaan. Mutta onhan asioita, jotka ovat
vielä pahempia, vielä tuhoisampia tämmöisissä tapauksissa kuin
kaikkein ilkeämielisin ja tarkoituksellisin suhtautuminen asiaan. Juuri
silloin nimittäin, jos meidät on esimerkiksi saanut valtaansa
eräänlainen niin sanoakseni taiteellinen leikittely, taiteellisen
luomisen tarve, niin sanoakseni romaanin sepittäminen, varsinkin jos
olemme Jumalalta saaneet suuret lahjat psykologian alalla. Jo
Pietarissa, vasta tehdessäni lähtöä tänne, minulle huomautettiin
ennakolta — ja tiesinhän minä sen itsekin ilman mitään
ennakkohuomautuksia, — että saan täällä opponentikseni sangen
syvän ja hienon psykologin, joka jo kauan sitten on tällä
ominaisuudellaan saavuttanut eräänlaisen erikoislaatuisen maineen
meidän vielä nuoressa lakimiesmaailmassamme. Mutta psykologia,
hyvät herrat, vaikka se onkin syvämielinen asia, muistuttaa kuitenkin
keppiä, jossa on kaksi päätä (naurahdus yleisön joukossa). Oi, te
annatte minulle tietysti anteeksi arkisen vertaukseni; minä en kykene
puhumaan hyvin kaunopuheisesti. Mutta otanpa esimerkin, —
ensimmäisen, mikä sattuu muistumaan mieleeni syyttäjän puheesta.
Syytetty juostessaan yöllä puutarhassa pakoon kiipeää aidan yli ja
iskee vaskisella survimella maahan lakeijan, joka on tarttunut hänen
jalkaansa. Sitten hän heti hyppää takaisin puutarhaan ja puuhailee
kokonaista viisi minuuttia maahan tuupertuneen tarkastelussa
koettaen päästä selville, oliko hän tappanut tämän vai eikö. Ja nyt
syyttäjä ei millään ehdolla ota uskoakseen todeksi syytetyn väitettä,
että hän oli hypännyt ukko Grigorin luo säälistä. »Ei, voiko muka olla
sellaista tunteellisuutta semmoisella hetkellä; se on luonnotonta, hän
hyppäsi alas nimenomaan päästäkseen varmuuteen: onko elossa
vai kuollut hänen tihutyönsä ainoa todistaja, ja sillä hän siis todistikin
tehneensä tämän tihutyön, koska hän ei voinut hypätä puutarhaan
minkään muun syyn, viettymyksen tai tunteen johdosta.» Siinä on
psykologia; mutta ottakaamme sama psykologia ja soveltakaamme
se asiaan toisesta päästä lähtien, niin tulos on aivan yhtä
todenmukainen. Murhaaja hyppää alas varovaisuudesta,
päästäkseen varmuuteen, onko todistaja elossa vai eikö, mutta
kuitenkin hän on juuri-ikään jättänyt murhaamansa isän huoneeseen,
syyttäjän oman todistuksen mukaan, äärettömän raskauttavan
todistuskappaleen itseänsä vastaan, nimittäin rikkireväistyn käärön,
johon oli kirjoitettu, että siinä oli ollut kolmetuhatta. »Jos hän olisi
vienyt tämän käärön mennessään, niin ei kukaan koko maailmassa
olisi tietänyt, että käärö oli ollut olemassa ja että siis syytetty oli
ryöstänyt rahat.» Näin lausui syyttäjä itse. No, yhteen asiaan,
nähkääs, ei riittänyt varovaisuutta, mies joutui pois suunniltaan,
pelästyi ja pakeni jättäen lattialle todistuskappaleen, mutta kun hän
kaksi minuuttia myöhemmin löi maahan ja tappoi toisen miehen, niin
heti samassa ilmenee sydämetön ja harkitseva varovaisuuden tunne
meidän suureksi mielihyväksemme. Mutta olkoon, olkoon, että se oli
niin: siinäpä psykologian hienous onkin, että tämmöisissä
olosuhteissa minä nyt olen verenhimoinen ja terävänäköinen kuin
kaukaasialainen kotka, mutta seuraavassa silmänräpäyksessä
sokea ja arka kuin vähäpätöinen myyrä. Mutta jos minä olen niin
verenhimoinen ja julman harkitseva, että tehtyäni murhan hyppäsin
alas vain katsoakseni, onko elossa vai ei se, joka voi todistaa minua
vastaan, niin mitä syytä luulisi minulla olevan puuhailla tämän uuden
uhrini ääressä kokonaista viisi minuuttia ja hankkia siinä kenties
uusia todistajia vastaani? Miksi kostutin nenäliinani pyyhkimällä verta
nujertamani miehen päästä, joten nenäliinasta sitten tulee niinikään
todistuskappale minua vastaan. Ei, jos me kerran olemme niin
harkitseva ja kovasydäminen, niin eikö olisi ollut parempi, että alas
hypättyämme olisimme kolhaisseet maassa makaavaa palvelijaa
vielä jonkin kerran päähän sillä samalla survimella tappaaksemme
hänet aivan lopullisesti, ja sitten olisimme olleet aivan huoleton, kun
todistaja olisi raivattu pois tieltä? Ja lopuksi, minä hyppään alas
ottaakseni selville, onko hengissä vai ei se, joka voi todistaa minua
vastaan, mutta jätän samaan paikkaan tielle toisen todistajan,
nimittäin sen saman survimen, jonka minä sieppasin kahden naisen
asunnosta ja jonka he molemmat aina voivat tuntea omakseen ja
sitten todistaa minun ottaneen sen heiltä. Enkä minä sitä edes
unohtanut tielle enkä pudottanut hajamielisyydessäni ja ollessani
suunniltani: ei, me nimenomaan viskasimme pois aseemme, sillä se
löydettiin noin viidentoista askelen päästä siitä paikasta, missä
Grigori tuupertui maahan. Kysytään, miksi me sitten teimme niin?
Siksipä juuri sen teimmekin, että mielemme tuli katkeraksi, kun
olimme tappaneet ihmisen, vanhan palvelijan, ja siksi me
harmistuneena ja kiroten paiskasimme pois survimen joka oli ollut
murha-aseena, muulla tavalla ei asia voinut olla, miksi se muuten
olisi paiskattu sellaisella vauhdilla? Jos taas saatoimme tuntea surua
ja sääliä ihmisen tappamisesta, niin se johtui siitä, että emme olleet
tappaneet isäämme. Jos olisimme murhanneet isämme, niin emme
olisi säälistä hypänneet alas toisen maahan lyödyn luo, silloin olisi
ollut valalla toinen tunne, ei silloin ollut aikaa sääliä, vaan oli
ajateltava itsensä pelastamista, se on tietysti selvää. Päinvastoin,
toistan sen, olisimme murskanneet hänen kallonsa lopullisesti
emmekä puuhailleet hänen tähtensä viisi minuuttia. Oli sijaa säälille
ja jalolle tunteelle juuri sen tähden, että omatunto sitä ennen oli
puhdas. Siinä on siis jo toinen psykologia. Minähän, herrat
valamiehet, tahallani turvauduin nyt itsekin psykologiaan
osoittaakseni havainnollisesti, että sen pohjalla voi tehdä millaisia
päätelmiä tahansa. Kaikki riippuu siitä, kenen käsissä se on.
Psykologia houkuttelee kaikkein vakavimpiakin ihmisiä sepittämään
romaania ja aivan vastoin heidän tahtoaan. Minä puhun liiallisuuksiin
menevästä psykologiasta, herrat valamiehet, eräänlaisesta sen
väärinkäyttämisestä. —
11.
Rahoja ei ollut. Ryöstöä ei tapahtunut.
12.