Avoidable Contact #81: Won't someone think of THE ENVIRONMENT? ’Cause I'm not gonna do it

[Grace]

I'm a big fan of hypocrisy. No, really. Neal Stephenson did a pretty good of summarizing my thoughts on the matter in his novel The Diamond Age, like so:

"That we occasionally violate our own stated moral code," Major Napier said, working it through, "does not imply that we are insincere in espousing that code." "Of course not," Finkle-McGraw said. "It's perfectly obvious, really. No one ever said that it was easy to hew to a strict code of conduct. Really, the difficulties involved—the missteps we make along the way—are what make it interesting. The internal, and eternal, struggle, between our base impulses and the rigorous demands of our own moral system is quintessentially human. It is how we conduct ourselves in that struggle that determines how we may in time be judged by a higher power."

Read the full article on Hagerty.com: https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/avoidable-contact/avoidable-contact-81-wont-someone-think-of-t...

[Driveit]

Wow! It appears that even Hagerty MUST be a political rag now. And i was foolish enough to think that it could just be about cars...

Turn off the T.V. - take a ride instead.

[Guitar74]

I think it is a way of the smug to look down on us "regular" guys who couldn't possibly be doing as well as them. I remember in early grade school hearing about the upcoming "second ice age where everything was going to freeze and we were all going to die". Then in late grade school up through my early twenties it was "the world is warming at an alarming rate and we will all burn to death if we don't wear tin foil cones on our heads to protect our scalp from the UV rays". Then by my mid to late twenties it was back to the "second ice age" with a new twist. It would be brought on by "global warming". Finally, by my late 30s, the people who had been going back and forth for three decades on what was going to happen next to scare the living crap out of the uninitiated just gave up and called it "climate change". This way week by week we can get new evidence that we are two days away from either freezing to death, or a thermonuclear meltdown brought on by the sun due to the harmful swamp gases emitted from behind everyone's local Walmart is eminent. This is as bad as the floundering on eggs being good or bad for you depending on which decade you are currently in. I call shenanigans.

[Jack_Hagerty]

Fair enough, but this is where the idea of perspective kicks in. I'm sure you have an idea of what those efficiency standards should be --- but are they based on the idea of every human being on the planet having a car? If they aren't, then it's just back to the old "my consumption level is the right level" bit.

[NITRO450EXP]

Well Said.

[Bmike]

I like articles about cars.

[win59]

The least expensive therapist I have ever had...!

Thank You Jack!!!

[spark123]

Problem Solved!!!

[Matt-o]

"Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness" , Live dammit Live!! 

[warrene]

Somebody finally said it, if God didn't want oil or the talent given to those that were able to develop and use it, then none of this would BE THERE so punch the pedal and forget it.

[KwikDraw]

To SteveC, "Your point is . . ."

Your point would be valid, except the kind of people he is talking about are people who intentionally go looking for things to be unhappy about.  And when they are unhappy, they feel it is their duty to impose restrictions on the rest of us.  But these same people are like the Al Gore example, their vices are somehow pardonable or rational.  Your vices are not.