Nice post Mr. Dutt.
You are an "Old Fart" beyond your years.
As for Mr. Feibusch's original post, I particularly like "Sure we can fight
these draconian laws but good luck trying to change the mass mentality that
creates them."
What I find so bizarre is the strange double-standards that our fine legislators
put into law just to keep all the special interest money coming in. For
instance, the car makers, civil engineering, and concrete/asphalt groups will
assure us that our cars will be a common commodity throughout my lifetime. Yet
the government has created the EPA which can get legislation passed without any
of the constitutionally mandated checks and balances. An odd world. Car owners
may seem to be the victims but the industry keeping our cars on the road
certainly don't want us to die off. Merely to continue to provide the commercial
life-blood of the status quo.
We can also thank our upcoming generations that tie their self-worth to the
breadth and newness of their payment books to make sure cars will continue well
into the future. As long as the "long-range thinking" doesn't extend passed the
next model-year's new gadgets, the automobile should be safe. In many
metropolitan areas and exemplified in the paradise that is California, housing
is priced so far out of reach of the average salary, the only attainable measure
of wealth is the chrome wheels and the sub-woofers. Carry on progeny! Keep those
cars flowing off the Pacific cargo ships! Just leave a few old back roads for my
decrepit and idiosynctric British cars.
I love cars but ride public transportation (what part of gridlock is fun?) and
would certainly jump at the chance to telecommute. Leave the urban arteries to
the mini-vans and the sport-utes with the air-heads on their cell phones. I'll
while away my time yakking with you guys waiting for that early Sunday morning
and that empty country road.
Back from vacation and still grumpy,
--
Bob Allen, Kansas City, '69CGT, '75TR6, '61Elva(?)
"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie!'.... until you can find a rock."
Jason F. Dutt wrote:
> Dear God, that's scary! Whenever I hear stuff (or say it myself) like
> this, my standard response is a lamenting smirk (if that's actually
> possible), and the infamous line, "It's a Brave New World, don't ya know."
>
> However, you're right. There's only so much you can do to slow the process
> of a media controlled, mass-minded society. I jokingly have been known to
> say, "Our fall will be indivisible from the fall of Rome", and yet I see it
> happening, and fight off a bit of worry for me and my future children, let
> alone civilization in general. You see, I'm 22 years old, and don't have
> the ability to say, "well, I probably won't live to see the day" because I
> probably will.
>
> I don't mean to sound horribly pessimistic, but I have little faith in what
> most folks call "progress". You can't fear it, but you can't always trust
> it either. There are countless civilizations which have self-destructed in
> the name of rampant "progress". Sometimes, I wonder how many of us really
> think of what we do when we continue to allow more individual-restricting
> laws to pass. Not to exaggerate, but hey, it all starts with regulation on
> how many cars you can own, then it's homes, then it's the size of your
> home, then it's how many kids you can/can't have...where does this "best
> interest of the whole" or "progress" legislation become an infringement of
> our civil liberty?
>
> However, I agree. If it's going to happen anyway, lets at least get a
> piece of the action! I'd hate to be 60+ years old, broke, sitting in my MG
> which I've hidden in the basement, and saying, "Gee, honey, remember when
> we drove cars on the ground!"
>
> Leave it to me to really open the can of worms :-),
>
> J
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