An automobile is an appliance
So why are we turning it into a habitat?
Here’s a small step towards addressing climate destruction: think of an automobile as an appliance.
Once I closely followed the logic of the late inventor R. Buckminster Fuller, who when asked why he didn’t own an automobile, replied,
‘I rent when I need one. We don’t need more automobiles. They are redundant when they are parked.’
Fuller’s “Dymaxion Car” offered a unique advantage: one could easily parallel park Fuller’s auto. All 3 wheels turned 180 degrees.
Enterprise, are you listening?
David Byrne of “Talking Heads” fame does not own a car. He does not have a chauffeur on staff. He rides a bike in NYC where he lives, and when he travels to LA, formerly the city of smog and car emissions, Byrne rents.
Both Fuller and Byrne would advise us to think of autos as appliances which, like a crock pot, you borrow from your neighbor for brisket night.
They have a point.
I was dismayed when the latest rash of cable TV car ads came wafting into our domicile. It’s fourth quarter ad showing season and car manufacturers are not selling cars — who wants them — and instead are selling habitats.
With built-in hands-free cell phone reception, you can now take Google maps with you, conveniently displayed on a five by seven inch screen, restaurant search in tow. Of course you can load your favorite downloads of Star Trek or watch cute orangutans cavort on National Geographic. On two individual screens.
I am stunned. Am I looking at a car ad or an ad for Comcast? Of course I am not — the final takeaway scene is a gaggle of like brands coursing across an arid plain, spewing dust and the occasional sagebrush.
No worries. I can close the windows and turn on the hi fidelity-capturing Bose speakers and chill. Think ‘in front of the fireplace.’
Surrogate couch on wheels.
All we ask of a habitat.
Except when we park.
October 28
