As goes the Hummer, so goes America?
Saturday July 12, 2008
Categories: Consumerism, Culture
Matthew DeBord defends the totemic Hummer as essential to the American Way of Life. Excerpt: GM has hinted that, alternatively, it may convert the gas hog to hybrid status. But that would be like putting Rottweilers on a diet of...
Filed Under: cars, consumerism
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About Crunchy Con
Rod Dreher is an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, and author of "Crunchy Cons" (Crown Forum), a nonfiction book about conservatives, most of them religious, whose faith and political convictions sometimes put them at odds with mainstream conservatives. The views expressed in this blog are his own.
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Having read DeBord's piece, I have one quibble. Although I get the Hummer's appeal to certain hypercharged Type A men, I most often see the totemic behemoth being herded about in traffic by an equally totemic blonde and tiny trophy wife, who apparently requires a booster seat to see over the steering wheel. SUV really stands for Stupid Urban Vehicle.
Yes and No:
My mother went West in a Conestoga Wagon; that was so 1900s. Now they are in museums-iron people and wooden wagons. Now mushey people looking backwards and iron wagons running out of ideas. When do we become 21st century people looking forwards.
Sincerely, J R Dittbrenner
I was in the Army when the military Hummer was introduced so I got to drive the beautiful beast many times. After rattling my brains driving a WW II-era jeep (which was a remarkable vehicle for its time), getting behind the wheel of a Hummer was an almost religious experience; the bugger really could almost climb walls. But who needs that capability in rush hour? Unless you have a ranch in Montana where you need an all-terrain vehicle, the civilian Hummer has to be the stupidest waste of metal and gasoline ever. Its presence on our highways will not be missed.
"For American life to work, the illusion of endless abundance must be maintained."
If this is what we've come to, it's really sad. This would the the illusion born of empire -- of limitless supplies of cheap imported raw materials.
The alternative (consumerist) view is that American life is based on the idea that we can harness technology to overcome any obstacle. From that view, it's fine that gasoline prices go up--we'll just invent clever contraptions that allow us to drive our Hummers on half as much gasoline!
Both sets of my grandparents kept house during the Depression, and both of my grandfathers were lucky enough to have jobs. So both of my parents grew up in households shaped by the Depression, with an emphasis on saving, stretching, reusing, repairing, making do, and buying only what you needed, not what you wanted -- and *never* buying anything on credit, except maybe a house or a car. An occasionaly indulgence was a real treat, partly because it was only occasional. I remember when thrift was still considered a basic American value. Whenever relatives gave me money for Christmas or my birthday, my parents had me put it in a savings account. It's sad what has happened to the values of this country -- and I have certainly given in to it as much as anyone else.
But we require vestiges of the old dream to sustain our national optimism, which in turn nourishes our national character
Yeah, it nourishes our national character all right. Unfortunately, its a "character" built of vice, not virtue.
America is a country founded by conservatives, and it is this conservative national character - hardworking, family-oriented, thrifty, God-fearing folk that has historically made America a great nation and people. All that's gone. The "consumer" ideal is a brand new thing, not historically "American" at all, and it has ensured our cultural demise. Today, Americans indeed are hardworking...but now at the expense of family and community. That is, we consume for the express purpose of personal consumption. DeBord's America is not mine, and he's welcome to it.
What DeBord forgets: America was the first country to drill for oil and just by random luck happened to have some of the largest reserves in the world (TX alone had more oil than most other entire countries) and from about 1900-1960 we have already burned this oil with wild greedy abandon (route 66 and all that). This newfound wealth changed our thrifty family-based culture. And the party's over. Since we peaked in oil production in 1971 and are now running out (we went from the #1 oil producer to the #3 today and are falling fast and the entire world's oil supplies are not far behind). So it's a grim future for the individualistic, big car American driving culture. But rather than being ashamed at our all-night drunken orgy and slinking back home for a shower, America is flipping the bird at our children and plan to flaunt the consumption to the bitter end.
In summary, the glory days are over and the faster we forget them, the better. It's cleanup time, and I'm sorry but the sight of an empty whiskey bottle (the Hummer) makes me feel sick. Yet DeBord - along with a whole generation raised as consumers and knowing nothing else - are completely ignorant to the fact that greed is an ugly vice with no redeeming features. Finally: when one reads people like DeBord, it's easy to see the Benedict Option is the only route left. There is nothing left of the culture to save. Let them party to the end. I'm going home.
I never saw the point of a Hummer - I drive a Miata.
Sorry, the above post is mine.
It's sad what has happened to the values of this country -- and I have certainly given in to it as much as anyone else.
Unrestrained consumption and surrounding oneself with material stuff to the point that it impedes and engulfs life tends to be a behavior of people who want to feel Not Poor. Children and pets often serve as such material stuff. It's therapeutic.
People who are wealthy or have strong priorities tend to consume more selectively. Perhaps not less, but in more purpose-directed ways.
Hey Rod, check this out:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080712/ap_on_re_us/odd_rolling_of_the_bulls;_ylt=Ao_lhciw8No03EhaJuztM3Os0NUE
Roller girls give chase in La. version of bull run
NEW ORLEANS - It's the running of the bulls, New Orleans style.
Hundreds of men, women and children, most in white with red scarves around their waists and red bandannas around their necks, gathered outside a French Quarter bar Saturday morning to be chased down Bourbon Street by members of New Orleans' roller derby league.
"Roller skates and a stampede through the Quarter — what could possibly go wrong?" said accountant Jason Medonia.
The run, in its second year, featured 33 roller girls in horned helmets from teams with names like Confederacy of Punches and Crescent Wenches.
mdavid: The "consumer" ideal is a brand new thing, not historically "American" at all, and it has ensured our cultural demise.
That's true - I blame the 1920s (with the "professionalization" of housewifery, for instance) to get the ball rolling, and the post-WW II period to sink it in the corner pocket.
"I burn my candle at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But oh my foes and ah my friends,
It gives a lovely light!
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Carloine, It gives a lovely light!
Debatable.
Isn't there some fish--maybe a shark--that must always keep moving because if it ever stopped it would drown?
That's us.
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