Hypocrisy comes in 'scales' and has 'relativity' too..
(Possibly 'hypocrisy' isn't the right word though, when we reach the scale of massively-shared illusion?)
I'll agree with your placing of second-hand smoke VS the Larger, ongoing problem to which (most-) all are inured. But it is moot: it's unThinkable to most Muricans to even imagine! winding-down their utter God-reverence for Very Expensive Personal Wheels. Not even with a free / magic overnight / instant creation of the most modern public transport. Not even when the cost of maintaining subsidized-lo gas prices is: becoming an Imperial Power - taking what we want from the less-armed; using 25% of the world's supply of lots of stuff.
I believe this started as freedom from the oppression of one's family, neighbor group, especially in small towns. Early-on it was realized that Sex could only become more possible (in Really Puritan times) via the privacy afforded, too - with or without the drive-in movie.
Clearly there are many +s; but it took decades for the -s to rear their ugly confounding heads. By then the fad had modified the genetic structure of homo-Muricanus-Disneyensis. By now: for too many homogenized souls, The Car encapsulates Everything! (the more so.. the younger the car-besotted one).
It proclaims status, for certain tawdry definitions. Its appearance -- so utterly impractical of maintenance in a land of narrow parking spaces -- Must be maintained on a level with jewelry: an industry in itself. Just look at the impractical shapes, from any repair standpoint. And with Ronnie's reduction to the 2\ufffd MPH bumper as Corporate sop - windfall! for the panel beaters. And Corp spare parts. (My '77 Saab has 5 mph bumpers that ARE "5 mph". 5 mph-PLUS - one was tested!). But that's just a tiny aspect.
The spin-off in parasitic industries has become such that: any effort towards deemphasis would be deemed as blasphemous as to say, Were Jesus alive today - he would not want to be a Christian, all things considered.. Many many! jobs are intertwined with this addiction - which makes nicotine seem almost benign.
No, I think we'd take the hit from the asteroid rather than give up Car Worship. It is perfectly irrational (like the other example), thus perfectly impervious to logical - let alone reasonable argument, in the mass.
{sigh} Seems that species-wide we are averse to studying history and avoiding repetition of earlier follies / and also not much oriented towards any planning beyond the next quarter (bizness being both cause and effect of the junk-DNA within?).
ie We Serve The Car, now.. not vice versa. Best accept our profligacy and also our overall suicidal nature. (After all, it's just an illusion - this maya, you know? ;-)
Ashton
Blessed are those who expect noth-
PS Especially - do not expect the Corps [oil] to go gently into that Good night.. wherein alternatives to [oil] petroleum reside; speaking of expecting..
