Cars

Over the weekend I finished the book Oh Pure and Radiant Heart by Lydia Millet. It's a story with a rather odd premise. The scientists J. Robert Oppenheimer, Enrico Fermi, and Leo Szilard, major figures in the Manhattan Project that led to the creation of the atomic bomb, somehow appear in the year 2003 directly from the moment after the Trinity test in New Mexico.

The world, of course, does not know how to react to them. They in turn do not know how to interpret the world into which they have been thrust.

At one point in the book Oppenheimer comments to the young woman who has been their guide through their modern adventure that he believes that cars are the worst thing that has happened to the modern world. He remarks that no one ever walks, that the cars are a terrible waste of resources, and they have done nothing to bring civilization forward. I couldn't agree more.

As someone who doesn't drive I am amazed at how infrequently people get out of their cars. Certainly out here in the suburbs it is difficult for people to do the normal chores of shopping, visiting, extra-curricular activities without being driven there. Difficult but not impossible. Being a walker or biker, though, makes me seem like a freak. Out here it's another form of conspicuous consumption. High school kids drive to school even though the parking situation there is difficult.

Another reason that I don't belong here.