Originally Posted By: d00df00d
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Most people don't equate driving with enjoyment, period, and for them having to shift gears manually is just an extra hassle. They want their appliance to take them from A to B, and they want it done with minimum amount of effort and engagement since they have many other things to focus on, like their phone or their make-up. And there's nothing wrong with that. Just a different approach to driving.
I agree with this mightily -- except for the last line, which I disagree with just as mightily.
In this country, people HAVE to drive just to get around, and cars are sort of ingrained in the culture as symbols of freedom and empowerment. Therefore, most people see driving as a necessity and a right, not as a privilege. It makes sense that they'd value simplicity and mindlessness over involvement and control. So, that's where we agree.
How could anyone say there's nothing wrong with this picture? When you see parents pacify their kids with iPads just so they can watch TV all day and not care, would you call that "just different approach to parenting?" If there were a whole community (let alone a nation) of absent-minded parents like that, would you want to live anywhere near those kids when they grew up? If their eyes glazed over whenever you talked about more effortful methods of child-rearing, wouldn't that disturb you?
America's obsession with mindless driving is a bad thing. It fills the roads with people who are intentionally ignorant about what they're doing. It pushes the car industry toward boring and isolating products that make the laziness worse. It creates conditions that are unfriendly to people who WANT to know what they're doing (i.e. enthusiasts). Seems plenty wrong to me.
You said everything I always want to say but pretty much never bother to... I agree mightily with ever bit of it!
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Most people don't equate driving with enjoyment, period, and for them having to shift gears manually is just an extra hassle. They want their appliance to take them from A to B, and they want it done with minimum amount of effort and engagement since they have many other things to focus on, like their phone or their make-up. And there's nothing wrong with that. Just a different approach to driving.
I agree with this mightily -- except for the last line, which I disagree with just as mightily.
In this country, people HAVE to drive just to get around, and cars are sort of ingrained in the culture as symbols of freedom and empowerment. Therefore, most people see driving as a necessity and a right, not as a privilege. It makes sense that they'd value simplicity and mindlessness over involvement and control. So, that's where we agree.
How could anyone say there's nothing wrong with this picture? When you see parents pacify their kids with iPads just so they can watch TV all day and not care, would you call that "just different approach to parenting?" If there were a whole community (let alone a nation) of absent-minded parents like that, would you want to live anywhere near those kids when they grew up? If their eyes glazed over whenever you talked about more effortful methods of child-rearing, wouldn't that disturb you?
America's obsession with mindless driving is a bad thing. It fills the roads with people who are intentionally ignorant about what they're doing. It pushes the car industry toward boring and isolating products that make the laziness worse. It creates conditions that are unfriendly to people who WANT to know what they're doing (i.e. enthusiasts). Seems plenty wrong to me.
You said everything I always want to say but pretty much never bother to... I agree mightily with ever bit of it!