> Here's where we differed: she sees the vehicles as metallic
> embodiments of a disdain for nature. Climate, energy and aesthetic
> issues are the ostensible rationales for wanting them gone but really,
> the moral condemnation precedes all that. I don't share her view (in
> fact, I see it as shouty self righteousness masquerading as concern)
> preferrng to get the machines clean and leave moral judgments out of
> it. And so, we had an odd sort of argument - as odd as the one we're
> having onlist.
>
> What made it odd (and hilarious - although, the more I laughed like an
> evil petrol baron, the redder she got) was that we agreed on nearly
> every point...except her underlying ideological one: cars and trucks
> are bad because they take you away from 'Nature'.
I happily acknowledge that this ideology is Out There, and I don't mean to suggest anything so libelous as your being in league with Monsanto. It just bothers me that people are so quick to tag an author with the ideology to the point of speculating his reaction to hypotheticals, particularly when he seems to have striven to avoid (among others) the N-word.
But I suspect we're at an impasse.
-- Andy