Reclaiming (car) space
Thanks to my good friend and fellow PhD victim scholar Adrian for forwarding the following two items, picked up at the brilliantly named Spinopsys blog. An avid cyclist himself, Adrian added that it was good to make fun of the pious politics of the cycling culture. Though I am a determined car refusenik, I too believe in equal opportunity send-ups! ;)
My blog buddy over in Alabama, Curt, also offers an amusing driving anecdote—you can indeed often tell a lot about a person by their declared car sticker politics!
1. The Pious Politics of Cycling (1:18) (via)
2. Reclaiming Car Space (via, originally at West Virginia Surf Report)
As cars eat up more and more public space, someone has made a nice symbolic point in the photographs below. Our urban landscapes are becoming less human-friendly and more car-congested. It’s reflected in American English in the word ‘sidewalk’, for example, where humans are sidelined and relegated to less and less public space. (In UK and Australian English, we call it ‘foot-path’, but our car cultures are almost as bad). Urban camping, anyone?
I hate cars and this is just another reason why.
Funny piece, btw.
Thanks, Mister Peace. Your very funny Colin pronunciation piece (among other posts) just had me in stitches, btw.
That car-shaped tent idea is awesome, and middle-lane hoggers are invariably evil. The persistance of car culture generally perplexes me a little (I put it down to our intensely competitive monetary system with more than a little help from influential lobbiers); my Grandad confirms that driving was once fun, but in my experience the phrase “pleasant drive” is a complete oxymoron.
Thanks for the comment, Dave, agreed. The rabid individualism of our economic system (upon which a ‘harmony of interests’ is supposed to be produced in classic liberal theory) reminds me of a traffic analogy I once used in an undergraduate honours IR/ IPE essay.
Though somewhat tangential, it might be of interest and related to your observation about the globalised monetary system which Susan Strange notably described as casino capitalism. It comes from E H Carr’s classic The Twenty Years Crisis of which I’m sure you’re aware:
Both in our current car and economic systems, then, it seems that the parameters of regulation (“traffic control”) is governed in part by the sheer scope of users. Just a thought. Might be one to remember for those free market ideologues who argue that the unencumbered market solves absolutely everything.
Thanks, I appreciate the compliment. I’ll be sure to add you to my blogroll.
Likewise and thanks for the blogroll link.
Yeah, that’s an interesting analogy. But there are very few monetary systems which are guaranteed to grow in scope in the way that fractional reserve banking does.
Totally enjoyed the Kleinberg lecture at Adrian’s on Talmud and psychoanalysis. Thank you. Thanks Adrian. It was delicious with my first cup of coffee this morning. That lecture provides _hysterical_ context for the psychosis which is the state Israel – from which the whole world is suffering. Fascinating.
Until I heard that lecture I thought Jung should get the Golden Chutzpah life time achievement award for convincing the Hebrew God to feel comfortable on the couch in Answer to Job. But after the Kleinberg lecture I’m seriously considering giving the Golden Chutzpah to Freud for suggesting that Moses got his start in folklore as a Jewish projection upon the Egyptian cult of Aten. Best example I’ve seen of applied ressentiment. The slave mentality wants to steal authority shamelessly from the pantheon of the ruling classes but can’t resist patent claims of original thought. Also seems to explain why there has never been anything found in Egyptian arts and letters to corroborate events surrounding the exodus as a verifiable historical event. Wouldn’t you think someone in the Egyptian blogging class would have noticed something that unusual and glyphed something about it?
Golden Chutzpah Award, Egyptian blogger class … :D
Sophisticated political economy and psychoanalysis extrapolations just from this lighthearted post. I think I should post more of the cheery stuff. ;)