Cars have , of course, been the greatest boon to liberation in the history of the human race. until the motor engine was created we were dependent upon the horse to get around and they are neither as swift, as dry in wet weather nor cheap to keep unless you own land enough to graze them. Whilst there is much to be said for the demise of the horse in human society, not the least the ending of their slaughter in their thousands in our wars, it is a warmer more empathetic experience to ride a horse than drive a car.
Today young people long for their first car. It is the open road. The going out when you want to. Being able to feel safe. Feeling the road and counting the miles. Taking your date to the back seat, putting your children in safe chairs, helping mum get her shopping. Cars are the thousand and one ways in which we run our lives and because we travel to work they are the foundation of modern city living and the life-line of modern country living.
Which is why we all have to step up and take the blame when our modern way of living puts so much lead into children’s brains they do not develop properly, when our roads are so dangerous people die in their thousands, when we drive over animals we do not protect without a second thought, when the car becomes an extension of our inability to think.
Freedom has a cost other’s pay.