Behind capitalism's destructive car mania - Book review by Phil Shannon (Newslink)
Submitted by folkie on 20 February 2012 - 10:28am
Check this out:
Excerpt:
"The car is a huge devourer of space--roads, garages, petrol stations and parking make up between one-third and one-half of the total space in US cities."
Having never owned a car, I know I'm going to enjoy reading this book, although it may be a while before I can get to it. I have a backlog of anarchist literature I'm trying to catch up on, and that takes priority. But this book is definitely on my to-read list. Everything I've been saying for most of my life about cars, only with documented facts to back it all up. The rat race on wheels--going nowhere faster still gets you nowhere. ;)
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I'm telling you, my dear
Kansas ain't D.C.
Necessitiy will surely act as a driver. Capitalism & "car-ism" will both have to become so out of date, useless and replaceable.
Sounds like now!
Meaning that it can't happen here.
No sparkling, young politician in the US will even dare invite the bullets, not that one could get (s)elected without oil money support.
I'm still not really sure if the moon landing was faked or not, but I am sure it revived the space program and gave trillions more to NASA, trillions that could have wiped out poverty in the US and the rest of the world.
Okay, read the links
And it looks as if I had read the reviews before writing what I wrote but I didn't. So there HAS to be something to it. This is the direction we need to go with transportation but, unexpected things happen along the way. Things like war and natural catastrophes. And we can expect capitalism & car mongers to put up a fight. The new transportation will, as the one lengthier review say grow out of necessites. Freiburg & Brügge are two cities which have banned privately owned automobiles from the inner city areas. this is but one small step in the right direction. My idea is for the long haul roads to be changed as well. The highway in the USA are a different story. That will require extra thought.
So if we have a sparkling, young pResident of the USA come out and say he wants to revolutionalize the transport system the way JFK said he wanted to put a man on the moon, it could happen - IF he can effectively dodge the bullets.
edited 22 feb to change "capitolism" to "capitalism".
Future carz
Without looking at the links, here's my idea of a better way to get from a to z. The idea for this came to me while stuck in a traffic jam on the way to work one morning.
Fossil fuel burners are a thing of the past. Various forms of renewable energy are available. Asphalt rivers that once ran from one side of the country to the other have been replaced with greenery. Depending on the technology, the new "tracks" have two lanes in each direction for the larger travel tracks where the autobahn used to be.
You go to the collection point and before you can punch your token into the snack machine your "car" arrives. You swipe the card reader with your left jacket arm where your "ticket" is embedded. The door opens and you take a seat. You've selected the smaller car this morning so you can have some peace and quiet for a change. Sure, it costs more credits than the Sammelcar which seats up to 20 but it's worth it. It's just you and one other rider.
No driver.
Still in need of a cup-o-mud, you punch 2C on the keypad and your piping hot coffee is dispensed. You recline your seat and adjust the reading light as the car sweeps away down the track on the way to the main station downtown.
The day was an eventful one but without any stress. You look foward to your ride home as you go over tomorrow's tasks.
On the way back, you take the club car. It stops a few times on the way dropping people off and taking new ones on. There's a jovial atmosphere in the air as one joker tells tells another what he's cooking for supper and how great it's gonna taste.
No one owns a car these days. Cars are public property and can only be used on the track system. Rural systems are interjoined with transit and metropolitan ones so people can get around as good as ever but with one exception. There are fewer "roads", almost zero noise and pollution. No more train tracks and autobahns. Just the marriage of the two. And streetcars. Trams they're called in some places.
The number of cars on the tracks is regulated to fit the demand - at all times. And the system is variable.
No more traffic jams. No more bullies. No more crashes. No more drunk drivers.
The only real issue one could have with this new system is how the police can apprehend you by remotely locking the doors and hijack you into the police station against your will and without sending a patrol car. Like I said, cars the way they used to be - no longer extist. Chipped personal IDs do. And financial transactions are accomplished via the same chip that serves as an ID.
This year, 1984 will go down in history as the year we all dread and greet all at the same time as modern technology brings good and bad. And without us and our ingenuity, it could only be bad. Without hope. Luckily for us, we're nature's children and mother nature will keep calling us home onto her green mossy bosom.
That may well be the future in Germany
But Germany has quite a few good things that the US will never have, like paying workers a living wage, socialized medicine, and shutting down nukes.
Do check out those two links, rossi. They're very short but have all the facts you need to convince people of the need for future carz.
Here's another short review of the same book
http://www.fernwoodpublishing.ca/Stop-Signs/#reviews