I am one-tenth of the way through Why We Drive by Matthew Crawford and—as expected—I have so many conflicted feelings.
- I’m wholly on board with his critique of technocratic, health-and-safety-ism.
- I’m less convinced by his embrace of cars as a vehicle (heh) of this critique. To reveal my own bias: I hate cars. I hate cars for the following reasons:
- I resent twenty years of a ninety minute (total) daily commute. Cars were the site of my misery.
- Cars are expensive to own and maintain and are a terrible investment. I’m cheap.
- I like peace and quiet. Where I live, (intentionally) loud cars, trucks, and motorcycles are a feature of daily existence.
- Because of the above, I think cars were an unfortunate technological development. Their destruction of neighborhoods, their environmental impact, and the social ills they enabled outweigh their benefits.
- Having said all of this, I love solitary day trips in my car, exploring southern Indiana. I’m due for another one soon.
It’s been a while since I found myself both strongly for and against a writer before the first chapter began. I take this as a sign that the book will be worthwhile.