tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7923725288901074422.post6781821836890165663..comments2024-03-29T06:26:33.285-07:00Comments on Through These Woods: The Car InventionDan Trabuehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14303597141397042669noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7923725288901074422.post-67537129507859343752005-03-20T19:15:00.000-08:002005-03-20T19:15:00.000-08:00I'm not arguing against your suggestion that w...I'm not arguing against your suggestion that we are always looking for geographic solutions to spiritual and psychological problems. I certainly agree with that. Further, I fully agree with your suggestion that driving 70 miles to work is insane.<br><br>I was just suggesting that people tend to make excuses for not solving problems and we thereby have an everincreasing number of cars and the associated problems. But I do agree with you insofar as you're saying that living our lives in smaller circles is a part of the solution.Dan Trabuehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14303597141397042669noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7923725288901074422.post-42682493721235555642005-03-20T07:58:00.000-08:002005-03-20T07:58:00.000-08:00But the odds are terribly against it ... there bei...But the odds are terribly against it ... there being some other place where one would be happier. All the flying about in a rush appears to me to be a symptom of our trying desperately to get away from ourselves. Yet, wherever you go, there you are. How many people have you known who for whatever reason are not at peace with themselves and so they fly about feverishly to change everything around them: their clothes, their hair, their college major, their job, where they live, their spouse, and yet they are still not at peace. If we weren't in a dead heat all the time trying to run away from ourselves, would there even be a car and oil problem?Jamesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7923725288901074422.post-50594072811220495412005-03-19T18:47:00.000-08:002005-03-19T18:47:00.000-08:00Aah, but there may indeed be greater happiness tha...Aah, but there may indeed be greater happiness than the place we currently find ourselves.<br><br>Sure, we might develop a car that runs on water that has no great negative environmental impact. But if we are still driving around at 35 mph in the same place where pedestrians exist, there will still be thousands and thousands dying every year.<br><br>The point is: We must choose to live sustainably or we shall have chosen to live unsustainably and that is no choice.<br><br>We must lose the personal highspeed auto as the norm.Dan Trabuehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14303597141397042669noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7923725288901074422.post-33331803929958468712005-03-18T19:45:00.000-08:002005-03-18T19:45:00.000-08:00Rick, it's an interesting Rubic's Cube you...Rick, it's an interesting Rubic's Cube you have left us to ponder. If there were a world with no cars, what else would per force be different as well? As you turn the cube to eliminate cars, what else have you inevitably changed? In this ficticious world how many people are being killed by the effects of alternate transportation (or lack of it)?<br><br>There's a Catch 22 in your posited question. We are using up unsustainable fuel and exposing ourselves to needless danger and expense because we use transportation unwisely. Residents of City A commute 70 miles to work in City B while residents of City B are commuting to City A. Most of them have make-work jobs that do not put one potato on anyone's table. If we used personal automobiles wisely, how much would it cost us in resources and lives? And if we used alernate transportation foolishly, how much would that cost us?<br><br>Perhaps what we need to lose is not so much our cars, but rather the notion that there is some greater happiness in some place other than where we happen to be at the time.<br><br>JamesJamesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7923725288901074422.post-13046126564088346242005-03-09T11:30:00.000-08:002005-03-09T11:30:00.000-08:00I would, too (vote against The Car). Perhaps our r...I would, too (vote against The Car). Perhaps our recognition of its immorality will be the starting point of this revolution.<br><br>Great comment about cars owning us. I'd recommend the writings of the now-deceased thinker Ivan Illich to anyone interested in this topic.Dan Trabuehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14303597141397042669noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7923725288901074422.post-13007839522699184992005-03-08T20:41:00.000-08:002005-03-08T20:41:00.000-08:00Dan,I would vote against the car. I fully hope so...Dan,<br><br>I would vote against the car. I fully hope someday to live without one, but I am trapped by my need of a car right now.<br><br>I think about how oil is pumped out of the ground in the Middle East and the enemies we make doing this, hauled in and spilled from huge tankers to our country, refined at great cost to the environment in places like Texas City, and taken by trucks to service stations, so I can put it in my car to burn so I can drive. The cost of driving to work or the store or to the movies is more than the $1.89 per gallon.<br><br>Our cars own us. This will have to change someday.<br><br>Rick Rochericklibrarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11621583568674705756noreply@blogger.com