Te Radar: Bulldozer-power - the roar against terror hits America

HUMOUR

Who hasn't at one time or another considered converting a bulldozer into a steel fist of retribution to smite those faceless bureaucratic emasculators who have rendered us impotent.

Unlike Marvin Heemeyer, we tend not to follow our impulse, as we generally don't have access to bulldozers.

This is why I found myself regarding Marvin's actions with a degree of astonishment and respect.

The Colorado resident was aggrieved that his local council let a cement plant expand around his muffler shop.

He blamed the resulting dust and noise for effectively closing his business.

Not one to mope, Marvin found a new enterprise.

He spent months encasing his bulldozer in steel and concrete, rendering it impervious to bullets and bombs. He even installed TV cameras to show him where he was going.

Then, literally and metaphorically, he went to town.

There he demonstrated his discontent by demolishing the buildings of those he felt had done him wrong.

I was disconcerted to see these actions described by the media as a "rampage".

I don't know how many headline writers have ever had the pleasure of operating a bulldozer, but their lack of speed tends to render them virtually impossible to rampage.

In many ways Marvin's WMD (Wonderfully Modified Dozer) was a fitting weapon with which to confront bureaucracy. Both creep inexorably onwards, seemingly unable to be stopped. They are relentless, faceless, and heartless.

Bureaucracy is like cancer. I was reminded of this with the death of Ronald Reagan. He vowed to create smaller government. In 1981, as part of Reagan's budget cuts for federally financed school lunches, it was suggested that ketchup be reclassified as a vegetable.

Needless to say, by the time Reagan had finished the government was larger than when he had begun.

One local described Marvin's actions as domestic terrorism. But he was clearly taking up the cudgel in the War against Terror - the terror of the innocent by the faceless apparatchiks of the state.

He was the archetypal lone warrior waging war on an oppressive regime. What could be more American?

That he appeared to deliberately avoid injuring anyone also negated the connotations conjured up by the term rampage.

Marvin was finally halted when he stranded the bulldozer on some rubble after a couple of hours of destruction.

Waiting outside the stranded machine were townsfolk who were clearly about as happy as an All Whites supporter watching reruns of the game against Vanuatu.

Marvin Heemeyer might have been an ordinary guy pushed too far by a faceless bureaucracy, or he might simply have been as mad as a bucket of spanners.

But, trapped inside the cabin of his improvised behemoth, Marvin killed himself. Maybe the thought of trying to get off the inevitable parking ticket was too much for him to bear.

* theradar@radarswebsite.com