James Lileks writes with more style and humor than just about anyone. He’s one of those writers other writers quote and say “I wish I had written that” —literally.
He recently made more astute observations than I could about the lack of brio among car salesmen. Not that anybody misses the badger, but it is a shame that he’s been replaced by the “nice kind fellow who seemed unable to show enthusiasm not just for this car but for cars in general. They’re just, you know, cars.”
Too many teenagers have no desire to get a driver’s license, let alone a car. They’re perfectly content to get a ride to school from mom or dad or Uber. And don’t even mention a manual transmission to most of them. Lileks sagely sees where this will all end:
A nation of people indifferent to cars is ripe for socialism, I tell you. Ripe! They’ll want everyone putting around in putty-colored pods controlled by a wise computer that manages congestion and ensures that no one has more horsepower than anyone else. They’ll probably have dampening fields that stifle access to hate speech, like talk radio, and if you make two stops at the liquor store in a week it’ll tattle to the gummint health provider.
How can we take control of our lives if we can’t even muster the passion for the freedom of a car?
(photo credit: Averie Woodard via Unsplash)
