> Magic Circ Op Rep Ens wrote:
>
> From: "Christoph Reuss" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Sent: Saturday, June 16, 2001 8:12 PM
> Subject: Computers, Cars and Addiction (was Re: Desk Rage)
>
> >
> > Having always lived without a car, I must disagree.
> > Living without a car doesn't mean going back to the apes as you suggest --
> > on the contrary, cars reduce life quality and rob time, money and health
> > that can be used in a much more cultural way.
[snip]
>
> I couldn't agree with you more. Growing up on the prairie where everyone
> figures to die eventually in some terrible automobile accident, moving to
> the more efficient city and selling my van for practically nothing was a
> liberating experience. If I want to rent a car I do so but I prefer taking
> plane or train. This country is so nuts about the automobile that they
> make it difficult and overly expensive not to pollute the air and create
> those massive automobile wrecks they love to glorify in the movies.
>
> Ray
I think living without a car is great if one lives in Manhattan!
Cars are a prison for oneself and a burden to others.
I had a friend who, lived on the upper East Side, and, like Ray, whenever he
wanted to go anywhere, he'd walk 2 blocks to Avis
and *rent* a car, and he still came out "ahead" $$$ over
*owning* a car. *That* kind of living without a car
is far preferable to owning a car. But how many of us are fortunate to live
in *that* kind of life situation?
--
If anyone wishes to criticize automobile ownership,
*I* believe that we should stop going places altogether. We should
be able to do everything at home or within walking distance
thereof (else what has "the computer" or even the telephone and
the printing press done for us?).
The only times human bodies should get into conveyances is for
situations like if you have to go to a major medical center for
specialized treatment (or if a specialist needs to
come to you).
All physical aggregations of more
than *at the very most* a couple dozen or so persons (and even this many
only in a commodious room!!!) should cease,
because all crowds (including culturally honorific crowds, like for
art performances or receiving a Nobel Prize) degrade our
humanity to being a member of a mass and provide opportunities for germs to
colonize new human bodies and trade genetic material to
make themselves more virulent. Any group big enough to need a leader
is a misfortune in open-endedly ramifying/metasticizing ways (Nature
sometimes imposes misfortunes on us even with modern technology).
Only freight should move, and even that not nearly so much
as at present, which indicates one more of the few valid reasons
for living human bodies to leave their local neighborhoods.
Those who wish to be "world travelers" can be pilots for FedEx.
--
The more I think about it, the more I realize how difficult it is
so see how dubious "the obvious" is, and how much more of it there is
than I had already imagined.
...we ask you:
Even if it's not very strange, find it estranging
Even if it is usual, find it hard to explain
What here is common should astonish you
What here's the rule, recognize as an abuse....
(--Bertolt Brecht, "The Exception and the Rule")
+\brad mccormick
--
Let your light so shine before men,
that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16)
Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)
<![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
914.238.0788 / 27 Poillon Rd, Chappaqua NY 10514-3403 USA
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Visit my website ==> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/
