My good Friend Paul Richards sent me this comment, I thought I might post it since I enjoyed it so much:
I have a love hate thing with cars all my life. Tenderly washing it, cursing it in smoggy traffic jams, loving the thick treads still on my tires, feeling like a happy truck owner, lamenting its mere four cylinders, its age and bumps and scratches and the rust on the rack. But compared to some, I am a real slacker when it comes to car pride.
All around us, it is way over the top, regardless of borders, languages, ethnicity, or culture. And yes, it leaves me somberly thoughtful to know that the car culture is so deeply rooted in our ecologically destructive society. But what are you gonna do?
You have to get around. So why not do it with some style, within limits, of course. Funny how car manufacturers now offer cars that are modelled on the old souped up hot rods that guys used to make...
I was thinking about your comment on how the engine looks. It is a hallmark of our times, that technology is shaped by marketing. This goes way back to the 19th century and before. I once read about how, in the 1890s, International Harvesters put in a whole new technology in one of their Chicago factories just to get rid of a union of skilled machinists. The technology did not work well and within ten years it had to be replaced and the skilled guys came back, without the union...
The influence of management (capitalistic management) on technology is really deep. It should not surprise us. The real surprise is that we all still know that there is a technology that could exist that is not bent to the will of greed. Hummm.
I have a love hate thing with cars all my life. Tenderly washing it, cursing it in smoggy traffic jams, loving the thick treads still on my tires, feeling like a happy truck owner, lamenting its mere four cylinders, its age and bumps and scratches and the rust on the rack. But compared to some, I am a real slacker when it comes to car pride.
All around us, it is way over the top, regardless of borders, languages, ethnicity, or culture. And yes, it leaves me somberly thoughtful to know that the car culture is so deeply rooted in our ecologically destructive society. But what are you gonna do?
You have to get around. So why not do it with some style, within limits, of course. Funny how car manufacturers now offer cars that are modelled on the old souped up hot rods that guys used to make...
I was thinking about your comment on how the engine looks. It is a hallmark of our times, that technology is shaped by marketing. This goes way back to the 19th century and before. I once read about how, in the 1890s, International Harvesters put in a whole new technology in one of their Chicago factories just to get rid of a union of skilled machinists. The technology did not work well and within ten years it had to be replaced and the skilled guys came back, without the union...
The influence of management (capitalistic management) on technology is really deep. It should not surprise us. The real surprise is that we all still know that there is a technology that could exist that is not bent to the will of greed. Hummm.
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