I’m one of those people who has frequent shifts in their personal paradigm. Some of the changes become permanent. Others, like a notion I once had of going to law school, are thankfully fleeting.
Once again, I’m in the midst of another seismic shift, and it’s part of a dream of a simpler lifestyle.
So far, I have eschewed things like cable TV and cell phones in favor of spending more time out of the house. Or when I stay in, I spend more time reading, working on one of several book projects, and playing guitar and bass. Hopefully, creating abstract paintings, short films and black-and-white urban photography will be added to that list soon.
As for the next step toward simplicity, here’s a not-too-subtle hint in a blunt manner befitting my Noo Yawk roots: I’m so bored with the USA’s car fetish.
I’m tired of how much cars cost, the pollution they spew, how their proliferation has created auto-centric sprawl, how they help subsidize terrorist-friendly foreign governments (Saudi Arabia) and threaten pristine arctic wilderness.
Therefore, the rare times I listen to the song “I’m In Love With My Car” by ’70s British rockers Queen, it’s partially for sarcastic cultural commentary.
Unlike the Queen-depicted car fanatic, I’m not in love with my 2002 fossil fuel junkie. It runs OK. But it requires regular cash infusions. It is truly a complete waste of money, despite what slick television and magazine ad campaigns try to brainwash us into thinking they epitomize the ideal of freedom.
How can something so inherently repressive, so siphoning of income better spent and invested elsewhere, combined with stress and time lost in roadway congestion that otherwise can be spent with loved ones, constitute the zenith of freedom?
Anti-mass transit forces claim developing more bus and rail service is “social engineering.” True. But they don’t acknowledge that building more and wider roads is also social engineering. More roads, and the development that follows, effectively forces people to own and maintain a car and patronize its support industries in order to be a part of our society.
I’d love to try a car-free lifestyle, getting around by foot, bike or public transit. But if I had to own a car, I’d prefer it cost a lot less.
If I could find a way, I’d ditch exorbitant payments in favor of an old Volkswagen bus that I would hand-paint. Or, in a reflection of my dark and ironic sense of humor, I’d get a used hearse.
If I were able to pull that off, my vehicle would become a statement on our obsession with cars and mass conformity. Most people wouldn’t think of turning a losing investment into an eclectic, abstract form of expression. Nor would many want to drive something as cryptic as a hearse, even though I would modify it so it resembled the Deathmobile from “Animal House.”
I want to live my life on my terms as much as possible, particularly free of the arbitrary tyranny of the global oil cartel. Saying goodbye to the trappings of the car payment lifestyle would be a big step toward a larger vision.
John Santana is editor of the Mill Creek edition of The Enterprise.
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