The worst invention EVER.....

OK, so maybe I'm just venting after driving the freeway on this rainy day...but maybe it's more than that.

I think the automobile is the WORST invention ever, and here's why:

1) It creates the illusion that we are our own little islands. Cars give us the feeling that we're independent of others, and that we have control. Cars create the illusion of autonomy and exacerbate the ludicrous American notion of independence.

2) The automobile keeps us so separate from the humanity of other people that we somehow feel free to cuss out total strangers, say things about their mothers that probably aren't true, blurt out expletives that we would NEVER say were anyone listening, and in general behave badly.

3) The automobile is built around the illusion that we are separate from the environment and that this separation has no cost. But it has a HUGE cost. Cars are destroying our environment. To build them we rob the earth of resources. To run them we rob the earth of resources. To build them we pollute the environment. To run them we pollute the environment. And when we're done with them, we somehow believe that they just magically go away...but they don't...they rust and rot and pollute even more!

4) The automobile is created by an industry that is now in jeopardy of failing, possibly causing great economic harm to many many people. In other words, the automobile is responsible for building an economic house of cards that's built on non-sustainability. It's all about to come tumbling down, and there's not a lot we can do about it.

5) The automobile is a killer. That's right, a killer. Think about all the gruesome highway deaths that have been the result of the need for each of us to have our own, independent way of getting around. Sure, people die on trains and planes too...but check the percentages...it's SO much safer to take the train or fly...

6) And while I'm ranting about mass transit, the automobile killed that too. LA and environs was home to one of the finest mass transit systems in the country...that is until the automobile killed it. The rights of way are still there for the most part...but will we use them? Not while we keep deluding ourselves into thinking that cars are a good thing!

7) The automobile has us over a barrel--and not just an oil barrel. (Prices have come down, for now, but how long will that last? And even if the price stays low, what part of LIMITED SUPPLY are we missing?????). The OTHER barrel is the one that has many of us living in places that are only habitable because we own cars. Too far from a store, or anything else that represents civilization, there are an awful lot of folks who will be S.O.L. on the day there are no longer cars to drive. We call them "suburbanites."

I'm done for now...but I don't think the conversation is over. In fact, I think it's only just begun.