Samantha
Leopold’s Top Ten Revelations
1. My first car revelation begins with the most complex living this in
the known world: the human brain. Out of the 400 billion bits of information we
are exposed to every second, our brains only pay attention to 2,000 bits of
information. We all of three
brains: the neocortex, the reptilian and
the limbic. Out of all of these brains,
car commercials seem to only target one brain: the limbic brain. The limbic brain is responsible for our
emotions and how we feel. It is also responsible for processing images and
music. A picture says a thousand words and can have multiple meanings,
but if we are just given words, the “ah”
factor is gone. We simply analyze the words in front of us and use our neocortex to
rationalize them. Car companies target
our limbic brains, because they want to and invoke a certain emotion out of us rather than regurgitating facts,
whether it’s nostalgia or humor. Car
companies began selling cars strictly on the written word, but with
technology and other factors there was an epistemological shift (a shift from
word to image) and shifted our thought process from the rational brain to the
limbic. Consumers are more apt to
by a car by watching a funny car commercial about a little kid dressed in a
peanut costume, driving with Kobe Bryant, than reading a car statistic about
good gas mileage. In Carjacked Lutz
says, “…automakers and salespeople admit that cars are generally sold on the
warm, secure feeling they give the buyer as much or more than they are sold on
cold, hard safety statistics.” (Lutz,
179) Very few car commercials target our rational brain and if they do, it’s
towards the end of the commercial.
Almost every student’s presentation targeted our limbic brain in one
form or another and they were very effective advertisements. Car companies know how our brains works and
how to manipulate us to do what we want.
It’s scary, but what are we going to do about it? Buy whatever car, because it promises us
something that we cannot possibly retain without the car? Absolutely.
That’s the power of the media.
My second revelation was about our culture of automobility. Before this class, I had no idea what
automobility even meant. I knew
automobility had obviously something to do with cars, but I did not understand its
relevance or significance. Yes we have cars and we drive around in them,
but so what? After reading Cotton Seiler’s
book “Republic of Drivers” I found out what automobility really meant and how
it conquered our culture. “The act of
driving and all of those components that make driving possible, practical and
empowering, fun, salutary, and imperative, which all together compose the
entity called automobility.” (Seiler, 4)
Automobility is what our country
is built upon between our infrastructure, economy, and our lives. We have built this culture driven and dominated by the car, that is both amazing and extremely terrifying.
3. My third revelation occurred after the premier of Nelly’s “Come Ride
Wit’ Me” music video. Before this class,
I had seen the video and heard the song, but I never really knew what the
lyrics were or the significance of the automobile. Thankfully, I now know all the words now and I will never see the song in the same way. In the song, Nelly sings about his lavish
lifestyle centered around his car. The
car in this video is represented as a status symbol of his success. In the song he sings, “I feel the fame now, I
can’t complain now, shit I’m the mayne now.”
The car is the epitome of his success and he is able go where he pleases,
he can get whoever he wants, and he can pretty much do whatever he wants
without any repercussions. He’s made it and
the car is evidence that he has. “For
this man and many others, the cars on display are the big carrots available to
hose who work hard or win the lottery, and each, from the lowly Kia Rio to the
regal BMW M-class, represents a rung on the ladder of success.” (Lutz,2)
Nelly’s video and Lutz’s book exemplifies the meaning of the individual
meaning automobile and how our culture views success.
4. My fourth revelation was that the prominence of cars in our
media. Cars have infiltrated all forms
of the media: movies, television, YouTube,
the internet, etc. Cars are a part of
practically every element of our lives, but what surprised me the most was the
roles cars play in films. I can’t think
of a movie I have seen recently, that do not feature a car in one aspect or another. In class, we watched “American Graffiti” directed
by George Lucas and looking at the movie surface deep, the movie is about a
group of high school kids transitioning to the next stage in their lives. After learning more about automobility in
this class, this movie is entirely based off of cars. Cars are used as tools to transition from one
scene to another. Cars are used for
character development and are used to introduce each character. The movie describes the car culture of riding
around town socializing, eating, drinking, fooling around, etc. “…the car is
not just a prop, but is often the central element for character development and
dramatic intrigue, and remains central to Hollywood’s archetypal plots.” (Lutz,
7) Cars are much more
than a metal cocoon to get a person from point A to B, they are much more and
the film industry has captured these ideas and made movies out of them.
5. My fifth revelation was, the car is a symbol or a rite of passage for
teens into adulthood. I like majority of
other 16 year olds in the United States, relished the day when we could finally
get our drivers licenses and experience this long talked about “open road.” In the movie “American Graffiti,” we were
exposed to a group of high school students that were going their separate ways.
Cars were a symbol of status and
freedom. In the movie, if you didn’t
have a car or knew someone with a car, you were nobody. One of the characters, Steve, was headed off
to college and he gave his nerdy, car-less friend, Terry, the keys to his car. Once Terry had possession of the car, his
whole persona changed. He was driving
around town, picking up ladies and became a man in a sense. He became an entirely different
character. The car gave him confidence
and he essentially matured in the film. In “Carjacked,” the author talks about driving
as a rite of passage into adulthood as well.
“Wow, I’m a grown-up. I’m
Independent.’… It’s like, you go through puberty, and then you go through cars.”
(Lutz,20) “…when I was 16 and I remember
driving and being like, ‘I’m the shit now!” (Lutz,20) Lutz essentially explains the
transition Terry, like many other teens, go through during this transition in
life and truly is a step toward adulthood.
My sixth revelation is that driving is a privilege not a right. I live in a middle class society of South
Burlington, Vermont and owning a car or getting your license is the norm. Through this class, I have been taught about
the promises of freedom and individuality the car brings the driver, but not
everyone has this luxury. In “Carjacked”
and “Republic of Drivers” the authors talk about the inequalities associated
with driving and car ownership. Driving
used to be extremely restricted and still is in some cases. Only
upper-class white males could drive.
Women, African Americans, and the impoverished did not have this right. “Mobility is ostensibly a universal right;
yet it has been and remains a prerequisite of social, political, and economic
power, insofar as its true goal is “not movement as such, it is access to
people and facilities.”" (Seiler,23) Car ownership is still not accessible to everyone and people are looked down upon because they ride a bus or a bike from place to place. Lutz in "Carjacked" talked about the big open windows on the public buses to show the humiliation of the riders. Our culture has not deemed public transportation as a proper way to travel, yet the bus does not discriminate who can ride and who can't. Our culture and our media has ingrained the importance of car ownership into our heads that anything less is unacceptable. If car ownership and driving is so important to our culture it should be accessible to everyone and no longer a privilege.
7. My seventh revelation was that the automobile is a reflection of us. “What
I have with my car is definitely a relationship. It’s definitely a part of me, part of my
personality.” (Lutz,28) This quote from
Lutz’s book reminds me of the car PSA from my classmates Nate and Ben. They did an excellent job portraying the idea
of the car being our best friend. Car
owners are most definitely in relationships with their cars. People spend hours a day sitting in their
cars, eating in their cars, and listening to the news or music. People definitely have a relationship with
their cars and they decorate their cars to be a reflection of themselves. They
bedazzle their cars with bumper stickers, antenna ornaments, or what have you
to make their massed-produced cars their own.
There is even a show about personalizing cars and some of my classmates
made a spoof about it, “Pimp my Ride”. “People
don’t know us, but they know our vehicle.” (Lutz, 29) In my high school class, who were defined by
their car. It has become a normal thing. The car defines us, as much as we define the
car.
8. My eighth revelation is that cars are unhealthy and are essentially
metal death traps. I have been taught
that cars promise freedom and individuality, but rarely do I, or anybody else,
ever hear the negative side of cars. Our culture of automobility is built
around highways, fast food restaurants, and our infrastructure was built to
ensure quality time with our vehicles.
When we go on road trips or if we are in a hurry, the only accessible,
fast food is located from drive-thru windows.
We eat unhealthy food from our cars and then we sit and idle in our cars
for sometimes hours on end in a given week.
We pollute our environment and our lungs, yet we still continue to drive
and we do not alter our behavior. We are
dependent on our cars even though they are slowly and potentially killing
us. Lutz goes in depth on this subject
matter, but the facts that she wrote about that haunts me the most is about the
fatalities caused by cars. “As a nation,
we are nearly three times more likely to be killed in a car crash than by
homicide, and our children face no greater risk of dying from any cause,
accidental or disease-related.” (Lutz, 181)
Cars are public enemy number one, yet we still continue to drive
them. Cars are definitely not this safe
haven that the media portrays them to be.
I keep asking myself if the health risks are worth the drive to school
or to the grocery store. Walking sounds
better and better after reading “Carjacked.”
9. Cars are an economic burden is my ninth revelation. Our
culture has transitioned from one car households to multiple ones. My household owns four cars for five people,
giving our household a car ratio of four to five. “The car is
not only a major component of household spending, but its costs are often very
unpredictable, giving families a sudden and painful financial kick in the
shins.” (p.81) Majority of Americans don’t realize the impact a car has on
their household budget. They may consider gasoline costs to fuel their cars,
but forget about the potential costs of repair, insurance, loan payments, or
tax burdens. Cars are not built to last
forever, yet we treat them like they will.
We dump so much money into our vehicles that we will never get
back. Cars are an extremely bad
investment, yet we continue to buy more cars and fuel our culture of
automobility. “The $4500 it costs to own
and operate a car each year could cover a year’s payments on a $30,000
mortgage.” (Kunstler, 183) I still find it shocking how much money it
costs to own and operate a car, but more astounding how some of these families
would rather make a car payment than their mortgage. I would think a roof over their family’s
heads would be more important, but our bonds with our cars are so strong, we
cannot break those ties. It goes against
our values and our culture of automobility.
It’s un-American to not own a car, so we will do anything in our power
to have one or keep one. Unless we
change our car paradigm or cars become more affordable and more accessible to
everyone, cases of economic jeopardy will continue to happen. After all of these readings, I am strongly considering
buying a bike, buying a bike pass, or using my legs more often.
1 My tenth and last revelation is that I never realized
how cars are the reason our landscape is the way it is. Kunstler’s book “The Geography of Nowhere” really
opened my eyes on how our landscape has been molded around our culture of
automobility. “Americans have been
living car-centered lives for so long that the collective memory of what used
to make a landscape or townscape or even a suburb humanly rewarding has nearly
been erased.” (Kunstler, 113) Where we live, where we work, where we shop,
where we eat took a backseat in planning our landscapes, because we had a mode
of transportation that could bring us anywhere, anytime. With this mindset, we created urban sprawl
and we have accommodated our automobiles rather than ourselves. Our landscape is covered in roads, highways, interstates and billboards galore to get us to buy something as we drive around.In
doing so, we have fueled a lot of the issues we faced today like traffic congestion
and commuting multiple hours a week.
Cars are part of our cityscape and are ultimately responsible for the
way our landscape looks today. I still
wonder what our landscape would look like, if cars were never invented.
No comments:
Post a Comment