Misplaced intentions

The hybrid SUV is coming and I (and many others) find it to be a inauspicious event. Ford is touting it’s Escape hybrid as the best thing since sliced bread. They boast it “combine[s] SUV capability with the outstanding fuel economy and low environmental impact of a full hybrid.”

So what does that mean? More of the same unsafe handling and increased risk injury or death? And just watch that fuel economy soar, you suburban commandos, as you latch that boat trailer to the back or sit stuck in traffic while making your daily trip to the neighborhood Super Wal-Mart for toothpaste. Splendid.

Ford is so proud of their latest creation that they feel the need to show it off on the streets of New York City. Never mind that Manhattan is the last place anyone needs to be driving an urban assault vehicle.

Yes, great, let’s pat ourselves on the back. We’ve managed to develop a technology that just prolongs the inevitable, which is the eventual failure of our oil-based economy due to overconsumption. We can stretch out this suffering that is called American Culture a little longer and continue the charade of the American Dream while our cities decay, our environment suffers, and our sense of place disappears.

I don’t care how efficient automobiles become. They’re still objects that encourage isolation, monotony, and consumption. They are mechanical shells into which people retreat, emerging only when they are in the confines of their garage or mall parking lot. They, through their enormous demands upon space, create a bleak, unlivable landscape of concrete and asphalt, islands of shopping surrounded by a sea of parking.

And, oh, the shopping. We’ve all got more shit than we know what to do with, and still we can always go out, buy more, and load our oversized automobiles with our oversized merchandise that will soon fill our oversized homes. Wonderful.

Why can’t we put this ingenuity to better use and come up with novel ways to attract the suburban dweller back into the city and traditional small towns? How about coming up with mass transit systems that are attractive alternatives to private transportation? Working towards a better, different, future instead of continuing down our present road to ruin, is a bright prospect in these otherwise bleak times.

July 11 2004