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Why Cars Are Important (To Every Person Who Enjoys Freedom)

Posted by freedomforall 7 months ago to Government
13 comments | Share | Flag

Excerpt:
"Many people aren’t especially interested in cars but ought to be be – for essentially the same reason that people ought to be more interested in government, per Lenin’s dictum about government being interested in you.

People like Lenin are very interested in cars. More finely, they understand that so long as the average person is both free and able to own a car and free and able to drive it pretty much whenever he likes wherever he likes, the average person will be a free person. The freedom to drive one’s own vehicle spoils all the plans of the people who want to control people – for it is very hard to control people when you do not control their freedom of movement.

Understand this and you will understand everything that’s happening with regard to cars – which seems otherwise inexplicable because it is otherwise nonsensical.

Understand what they know – and hope you’ve forgotten.

Try to think of all the things all-too-many of us have come to take for granted – such as the freedom to live a considerable distance from work, so as to live in a nicer (and probably more affordable) home. The freedom to put distance between yourself and the undesirable – such as (for many of us) too many neighbors too close to us. The car made it possible for average people to get out of cities and crowded towns to raise their families in what they considered to be nicer places. The car made long trips – a for vacations, as to visit family or friends in another part of the country – easy as well as inexpensive.

Think about the flexibility of just going somewhere, maybe for no particular reason at all – beyond just wanting to go somewhere, spur-of-the-moment.

But – most of all – think about how owning a car has freed you from being on anyone else’s timetable.

And so from government."


All Comments

  • Posted by katrinam41 6 months, 3 weeks ago in reply to this comment.
    2 years traveling from one end of this country to the other--twice--in our 37' motorhome was the best time we had, except for living on our sailboats (that was the very best). Tucked away in my journals of our travels are photos and sketches of places like Mt. Rushmore, the lighthouse at St. Joseph MI, John Wayne's birthplace, Devils Tower, the Bridges of Madison County, sluicing for gems in Spruce Pine NC. Do it, Nancy! I am working on getting back to the road myself. The sooner the better.
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  • Posted by $ blarman 6 months, 4 weeks ago
    Adam Smith identified the ability of workers to move to seek employment in other cities as a key factor in wage arbitration. And in some cases like commuter jobs, a car is a necessity just to be employed. Now some people will argue that more and more people can telecommute and this isn't necessarily false, but it only accounts for about 13% of the jobs in the market even after COVID. Also keep in mind that employers also benefit as they have access to a wider pool of candidates for any given position.

    The US economy thrives on a mobile workforce. The only ones who want to constrain that are the elitists who want to control people and create more urban jungles and urban plantations they can exploit.
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  • Posted by 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    They can't turn off your cars at least, or stop you from buying gas with cash.
    If you leave they will have to use your cell phone or the nationwide
    network of 'traffic cameras' to locate you if you use cash.
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  • Posted by JakeOrilley 7 months ago
    "THEY" are trying to take away all freedoms that we have. Speech. Right of association. Right of worship. And truly, the biggest freedom currently in the United States of America - the right of travel. Used to have the ability to get in a car and go - anywhere - and only "YOU" would know where you were. Now with cell phones (they can be turned off) and the tracking devices in most vehicles (that is soooo much more difficult to turn off) and any kind of an internet device - that can be turned off easily - there are so many things that can track and let anyone that wants to know where you are - where you are.
    Dishartening.....
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  • Posted by JakeOrilley 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Just asking - I do not know - if I have an RV on a military base, the gov't knows where I am, right? I still have to check in at the gate? I know they can monitor most vehicles but since I have two that were before any chips ('52 and '69) I could find a way around that - but if I use their facilities......?? I know - a BUNCH safer than most big cities these days.
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  • Posted by chad 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Thomas Jefferson once wrote that there should be as much separation between state and schools as state and religion. If there was not the state would take over the schools, teach that tyranny is freedom, and it would raise up a generation who demanded tyranny believing they were demanding freedom.
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  • Posted by $ rainman0720 7 months ago
    Thanks for a great post, FFA, and for reminding us of the point. Sometimes I think we lose sight of just how important cars are to our freedom.

    I've linked to this article before, but this seems like a good time to do it again. The last lines quoted above ("But -- most of all --think about how owning a car has freed you from being on anyone else's timetable. And so from government.") reminded me of an article from George Will published a long time ago.

    The title of the article is "Why Liberals Love Trains", and it was published back in 2011. But it's still relevant today.

    Here is an excerpt: "To progressives, the best thing about railroads is that people riding them are not in automobiles, which are subversive of the deference on which progressivism depends. Automobiles go hither and yon, wherever and whenever the driver desires, without timetables. Automobiles encourage people to think they—unsupervised, untutored, and unscripted—are masters of their fates. The automobile encourages people in delusions of adequacy, which make them resistant to government by experts who know what choices people should make."

    The full article:

    https://www.newsweek.com/will-why-lib...
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  • Posted by Dobrien 7 months ago
    ThanQ FFA👍🏻,
    Three great thought producing points.
    1. The Goverment is interested in you.
    2. The environment is helped by EV’s it is nonsensical in every way.
    3. Imagine a time when it is no longer feasible. Imagine what it was like – in China – during the “lockdowns.” People over there actually were – literally – “locked down.” In the cities. In their apartments. All movement – other than bipedally – was easily controlled because people were under control. You stayed put because not-staying-put was no longer a feasible option.
    I have been telling people that’s why they are building an incredible amount o massive 4 story Apartments . They only have to guard a few exits for hundreds of people. Can’t guard all the exits of single family dwellings. FuQ them all. ESADMF
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  • Posted by LibertyBelle 7 months ago
    People will continue to propose and propose and impose and go along with such statist measures as long as they think the way they have been doing(Or should I say have not been doing---that is, NOT thinking),accepting irrationality and

    the altruist morality--until an alternative becomes clear. That is, until the movement to convert the people of this country away from it and to Objectivism--becomes effective. When will that be? Who knows?A start could be made by a vigorous campaign to abolish the public education system(s) in this country. Of course, that would seem to be, and would be received, as abominable heresy.But don't let yourself be intimidated by that.
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  • Posted by 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    If you don't need 'space' and aren't addicted to a hobby, say gardening, seeing the country from a motor home can be very rewarding and fun.
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  • Posted by $ 25n56il4 7 months ago
    Hey I'll go you one further...I'm debating buying another Motor Home (sold mine years ago) and dumping the Condo. I could then live on just about any Military Base I wished or the facility owned by the Base like Canyon Lake or Belton Lake where I could fish every day in all kinds of weather (I'll explain that later),. Also my daughter inherited 3600 acres in S. Texas but it is to damn close to the Border so I'll stay at the Army Recreation Centers.$12 a night. n
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