The automobile has destroyed our country.

dawg

Ok, so maybe I'm waxing nostalgic, or maybe I'm trying to make up for the Hugh Hefner thread that got me blasted by many of you...LOL! But I've been thinking lately of the impact autos have had on our society; I mean my generation is really the first generation where everyone has a car, my grandparents used to talk about the old days and remembered the first cat they ever saw. In fact, their honeymoon was spent walking down the railroad tracks and picking honeysuckles. Then I think about small towns like the one in which I was raised; in my town everyone knew everyone, helped each other out and was pretty much congenial. Its not that way anymore, people move in and they own cars so when they want to visit friends, they hop in the Chevy and go 40 miles to Macon and visit their friends there. Used to, friends lived two blocks away... what I'm basically saying is this, the car has made the social group distant, its not local anymore. So, there's no real sense of community as people come and go and usually don't get to know one another... I mean, you see ole Jim the neighbor once in a while but you rarely go over and sit and chat, and what's worse, most people I know don't even know their neighbors... in the South, that's unimaginable. So, in a town where there's a sense of community, you know if your wife is cheating, if your neighbor is a drunk, and whatever the latest is going around. This fear is recognized in a small community where the community is valued, people don't cheat as much, people are less likely to beat their wives and the like... I know back home what used to happen whenever the weak were treated badly, someone got their ass beat all to hell and back by the guys at the poolroom if the rumor got around that some sort of malfeasance was occurring. There's an ugly side to all this also, the Klan here in Georgia was widespread and fear of reprisals kept the good folks from stepping in to stop them, but I wonder sometimes what would happen if we could return to a more community based atmosphere that centered more on community and the family? Especially now that we have the internet and people are more educated and less likely to don white sheets and terrorize the community. What do you guys think?

5go

Yep the car ended communism in the USA wasn't that a good thing?

babygirl75

Dawg, I think you're a cutie!!!

But seriously, I get what you're saying. It used to be when growing up that families & extended family usually lived in the same area. I'm from a really small town in NC and you could walk everywhere, and everyone knew each other and looked out for each other. I now live 1 1/2 hr away from where I grew up. I go back to my hometown now and you can really see the difference. I hardly run into anybody I know now. Most people now live their own life and don't get involved in the community or helping others out. They just pass on by as if not their problem. Also, anymore families don't stay in the same area. I myself now have family spread all out. I have no family where I live now. Most of my family is still in some part of NC but we are all spread out; and two sisters & their family lives in Atlanta.

babygirl...

snowbird

Dawg, I feel you.

My grandma was - and I suspect myself also - one of these:


luddite noun
1.	any opponent of technological progress

5go, when are you starting your new job?

Sylvia

Gopher

There are a lot of factors that have led to changes that you mentioned, even social isolation. I've heard various theories on this.

In the 1920's the Middletown Studies came to the conclusion that radio was promoting social isolation.

Robert Putnam's book "Bowling Alone" in 1995 said that the culprits were TV and Video games.

I've even heard the notion that air conditioning changed our society. People used to hang out in the summer at the A&W, or on their front porches, or go cruising down main street in their convertable. Now everyone is inside in climate-controlled comfort enjoying their entertainment alone or with a small number of friends.

On the other hand, I'd say that calling some past time in America "the Golden Age", as some do, ignores serious problems of the past such as racism and sexism.

Many don't have the same degree of community or family support they once did. I don't know what to say, other than that the definition of "community" has changed. The community that we are now on (JWD) wouldn't have been possible 35 years ago, for example. Maybe times aren't worse, just different.

Lo-ru-hamah

Dawg,

I don't know if it was just the car but I wish for the good old days too. The idea of a close knit community sounds really great. My dream life is to live on a farm, have a milk cow, chickens, ducks, dog, horses, and a cat. Have a garden and live a simple quite life. Sit on the front porch in our rocking chairs and watch the kids play. Have the neighbors come over and drink coffee with them or lemonade on hot days. But, that is just a dream and it probably won't happen now.

We don't have the life that I really really want but we do have some real nice neighbors and they come over to our house and our kids play together.

Maybe, with gas prices going up they way that they are it will force people to stay closer to home and then we will begin to have friendly communities again.

sheri

daniel-p

Dawg, there's a book I'd recommend to you, called "Better Off" by Eric Brende. It's about a guy who noticed some of these things about our culture and performed an experiment by going to live in an Amish community for like a year or more. His reasons for doing so weren't due to any moral objection he had about today's world, so it didn't have that "hippie" feel to it, but was more of an academic experiment to see how his quality of life changed. It was a very good read, and I recommend it highly.

dawg

Babygirl-that's what I'm talking about.

Snowbird-I know you are a lovely lady of color, and none of us southerner's want to return to the days when people of color had "to stay in their places", but I can see you understand to a degree what I'm talking about... which leads to this reply to Gopher.

Gopher-I hear what your saying... I don't want there to be no technology, I just want it to be more communal. I know the technologies you've mentioned all had their impacts, but I live in the South, and I remember the Carrier air-conditioners my grandfather bought, they were window units and I can remember them and I'm only 45... everyone thought my granddad had hit the big time, and believe me Minnesota,you need freaking air conditioners in the South for real....

I was thinking this, if I lived with todays technology and life was more community based, then this life would almost be a utopia. My Dad, who won't speak to me... if I lived back home I'd embarrass him to damn death about that... I'd make sure that everyone in the community knew he wasn't talking to me because I disagree with the JW's... it'd put such a bad spin on the JW religion they'd be ashamed not to freaking talk to me.

dawg

I hear you L0-ru-hamah... that's what I'm talking about. Daniel-p... what was the jest of his discoveries?

NewYork44M

I live in NYC and gave up my car. So don't blame me for the destruction of america.

The automobile has destroyed our country.

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