In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

AUTOMOBILES 31
for the huge apparatus of social life, what oil is for machines. One
doesn't stand in front of a turbine and douse it with machine oil. One
has to know how to put just a little of it on the hidden nuts and bolts"
(Benjamin, 85).
Automobiles epitomize a new sensibility that appreciates the factual
and the quotidian. [see Uncertainty vs. Reality] This symbolic function
explains why, despite his antitechnological bias, Heidegger thematizes a
new structural element of the car in his analysis of "durchschnittliche
Alltaglichkeit" (Heidegger, 43; also Gumbrecht). But it is equally interesting
that his reference to the turn signal as a paradigm for the usage of
signs is directly followed by his reflection on the existential dimension of
spatiality. For automobiles and the still unfamiliar speed with which they
cover long distances contribute to the new collective experience of infinitude.
[see Center = Periphery [Infinitude]] More precisely, the fear which
their movement and even their sheer presence inspire becomes a metonym
for the fear generated by a space whose structures and functions are
no longer prescribed. The movement of automobiles is threatening because
it is not regulated through generally acknowledged laws. By accusing
drivers of arrogance, aggressiveness, and arbitrariness, and by criminalizing
their actions, the public transforms this situation of contingency
into an ethical problem. At the same time, the practical need for traffic
regulations capable of structuring the space occupied by automobiles
becomes a much-debated topic. Returning from the boxing match between
Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney [see Boxing], a New York Times
journalist praises the flow of traffic in the city of Philadelphia: "Most
Philadelphia streets are dedicated to one-way traffic. By a traffic rule
which seems to be enforced pretty strictly, taxis are compelled to stop
whenever a trolley car stops alongside them. Accordingly, taxis and
trolleys move at pretty nearly the same speed, and the Philadelphia Rapid
Transit deserves its name to a degree unusual with surface traffic" (September
24). In Berlin, traffic lights-initially criticized as an almost
grotesque failure-are introduced on October 1. Only a few weeks earlier,
on August 29, the Berliner Tageblatt tries to revise the firmly established
discourse which accuses automobile drivers of immoral aggressiveness.
With all due caution, it points to certain practices of the police,
who, using the absence of clear structures in the traffic space as an
excuse, set up speed traps: "It goes without saying that the drivers and
chauffeurs who speed recklessly should not be protected. Those who do