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Log and Greger, I think, brought up the subject of American car culture in another thread, and it seemed large enough to overwhelm that original thread allowed, so I’m hijacking it here.
My cousin still pines for his first love - a white ‘68 T-bird. If he found one tomorrow he might hock the farm to get it.
Considering cars haven’t been around all that long, they’ve taken us (primarily USamericans) over like Godzilla in Tokyo. My question is where, and why. Did it start with the post-war behemoths? Was it as early as the Model T?
When did it become second nature to drive places that were walkable?
Or was the takeover by car just a natural outgrowth of (US) Americans to hit the road, look for a better place?
Just thought I might mention that, before there were automobiles we were gifted with, literally, feet of horse s*** lining every street. Now add in the simple fact that most streets were also not paved. So, when it rained the stink, we are told, along with festering piles of horse s*** everywhere, was, if nothing else, offensive. All I am saying is that I suspect this might have also had something to do with the advance of the automobile.
I have a book, titled; "the Good Old Days - They were Terrible! by Otto L Bettmann Its pretty educational to read something like that just to keep things in perspective. Oh, and its also filled with a lot of old photos as well. I would recommend it to anybody who wants to see how the good old days really were. Back then they had Government by politicians, of politicians, for politicians. I know, we have serious problems right now but if you take a look at what we have overcome it kinda gives one the hope that if they cleaned up those messes we should be able to fix what we have going on now?
Log and Greger, I think, brought up the subject of American car culture in another thread, and it seemed large enough to overwhelm that original thread allowed, so I’m hijacking it here.
It’s an interesting parallel to the Culture topic relating to what culture actually is (like most topics it gets complicated fast and it’s unlikely that any single and concise definition will serve).
The Car Culture seems to be largely an obsession that is dragging us around by the psyche - I certainly have it and rarely see it objectively outside of a range of desires. Just since it was brought up I’ve been astounded at how much of American (I’ll keep it narrow) existence is bound up with cars. I said “obsession“ above, but addiction may be more on point.
We are changing the entire planet’s form and function to accommodate cars…
What if an alien race observes all these cars and their activity at a distance and, upon discovering all the humans inside them, concludes that we're parasites that are infecting them?
