>> Up here, driving a car is considered a privledge, not a right. The police
>> have been determined to have the right to ensure that you qualify for the
>> privledge.
TR> They give us that same line in the US and I think it's a bunch of crap.
TR> Riding a bicycle isn't a privilege, walking isn't a privilege, skateboarding
TR> isn't a privilege and neither is any other method of transport. Buying into
TR> that requires buying into the idea that freedom is something that the
TR> government can mete out as it sees fit.
I think _that_ is a bunch of crap. Typically American way of petrol
drinking thinking. I get rash all over when I hear that. Driving is
not a freedom because it infringes on others' freedom so much more
than walking. I have never heard that walking or bicycling damages the
environment that much, has people tortured in Nigeria or their rights trampled
everywhere else. It is commonly said that my freedom ends where your
begins. Figure in the externalities (vis an economic dictionary), and
perhaps you see that driving a car has so much external costs that it
must be regulated.
That the car is a token of freedom is the biggest American lie that
has befallen on the rest of the world. Usually, most car lovers
are enslaved by their car, not freed by it.
Car is a _tool_, not a freedom, for god's sake!
But perhaps we should get to Shel being stopped by police while
photographing... :)
Good light!
fra
