[I_Like_Plants]

I dunno about you, but I sit here at my home/workplace listening to AM radio and there are always the daily traffic reports, talk about wreckage and carnage. 6-car pileups, families wiped out, airlifts, fights, etc. you name it. Morning and evening.

Can you imagine this in the future? Nothing to report since it's bicycles and carts etc., few cars and those few car drivers very humbled, someone has a problem since most are out in the open, out of metal coccoons, they pitch in and help. Remember bicycles are open of course, and old style wagons are open - the better to interact with your neighbors and the world, my dear!

[dukey]

i've mostly stopped watching mainstream news on tv because its pretty much a daily body count

[BabyPeanut]

If it bleeds, it leads

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22if+it ... t+leads%22

[I_Like_Plants]

Interestingly, this is radio, and this is the routine traffic reports that people listen to so they know which routes to take, not much sensationalism, in fact I feel they try to downplay the carnage because if they showed the proper amount of outrage, people might stop driving. Oh the horror!

So while every hangnail is played up on radio and TV, here's the one area where sheer gut-spilling carnage and agony is downplayed.

[Laurasia]

Quote: "in fact I feel they try to downplay the carnage because if they showed the proper amount of outrage, people might stop driving. Oh the horror!"


And have you ever noticed how they never say: "two people died in such and such a wreck"? It's always "there were two fatalities." The word 'Fatality' places a layer of insulation between the speaker, the listener, and the word 'death'.
Regards,

L.

[I_Like_Plants]

Yep they were real patriots, they died in their cars, maybe killing others also, "faltalities" makes it sound heroic.

[seldom_seen]

"For the current American way of life is founded not just on motor transportation but on the religion of the motorcar, and the sacrifices that people are prepared to make for this religion stand outside the realm of rational criticism."

-- Lewis Mumford

[I_Like_Plants]

As usual old Mumford has it right. And people have to die, so America can keep driving! Your kid, your mother, you, yes, YOU might be picked to die, so America can keep on rolling! Makes you feel kind of special doesn't it?

At least if you want to kill someone in the US, you can usually get away with it if you just run 'em over with your car, even blatantely premeditated acts of murder are often OK as long as they're done with a car.