Car Culture and Global Energy Conflict

This ad (herein condensed) did not make the Super Bowl roster, but Sarah Palin probably likes it:

"My name is Ram and my tank is full. I'm fueled by optimism. Driven
by passion and stopped by nothing. I'm a can-do spirit in a get-it-done
body. All brawn. All brain. I'm built not to last, but to outlast. Not
to achieve, but to overachieve. I'm built to reward the doers who climb
behind my wheel every day by working even harder than they do. I carry
reputations. I carry livelihoods. I deliver the goods without fail. The
road ahead of me is long, but I know my destination. I will not
downshift. I will not coast to a stop."

(To see the full text and video, search "My name is Ram" at jalopnik.com.)

Michael
Klare, author of "Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet," remarks that
plentiful oil spurred the development of an auto culture, which is one
of the defining characteristics of U.S. society and an example to other
nations. We feel we are entitled to cheap oil and gas-guzzlers.

The risk of violent energy conflicts, however, is growing as more
nations compete for diminishing reserves. Nationalism is intensified,
making energy conflicts even more intractable.

David Campbell, author of "The Biopolitics of Security," agrees that
Americans regard cheap oil as a birthright, but suggests that oil's
iconic status cannot be explained merely by its historic abundance. Oil
became one of the ways by which we have sought to define ourselves as a
people and to validate that definition. Oil is cru-cial to one of the
central values of this culture, mobility. Mobility is a consequence of
and contributor to another key U.S. value, technological prowess.

These values have been validated by viewing as threatening those who
appear to have different values or who have characteristics that can be
portrayed as anathema to our core values. Thus in the 17th and 18th
centuries Native Americans, perceived as having no concept of private
property and no interest in technological bet-terment, were portrayed
as shiftless, and aggressive.

Today, environmentalists who have qualms about at least how we
achieve mobility are often portrayed as effeminate, soft, etc. These
portrayals in turn have often encouraged and been sustained by
bellicose nationalism. Critics of rapid natural resource exploitation
are viewed as dupes of foreign influence. Recently, nonviolent
protesters of energy exploration have been vilified as "environmental
terrorists."

Well-guarded geographic borders expressed and reinforced the sense
of the mighty and self-sufficient U.S. machine, but today these borders
are breaking down. Immigration is widely highlighted, but capital
goods, money, diseases, media messages and financial capital all cross
geographic borders even more rapidly. Climate change and energy wars,
perhaps nuclear, loom as the ultimate cross border challenge. All limit
our options and reshape our expectations. We are, as Campbell says,
part of complex networks.

In the face of flux, many strive to reseal our geographic borders
but others seek to shore up conventional identity through various
cultural means. The auto, the way it is advertised and even designed,
is an attempt to secure new boundaries. The SUV is portrayed as
security in a world of crime, dangerous traffic, a reminder of U.S.
military triumph and thus an antidote to the "Vietnam syndrome," and a
means to and expression of individuality. Like gated communities, the
Ram and the SUV are capsules that appear to seal us off from challenge
but actually increase international oil conflict and risks at home.

We can't, however, stop Alaska drilling merely by pointing out that
little of our total needs can be derived from there. "Drill baby drill"
has a compelling, cheerleader resonance, speaks to a visceral anger
toward environmentalists from a squeezed working class experiencing
flux. Drilling now bespeaks a take-charge mentality.

Ending this vicious circle requires willingness by environmentalists
and social justice advocates to engage the core values and identify
anxieties central to car culture. One counter is to ease immediate
economic burdens and foster jobs that recognize the talents of
displaced workers.

We might also address critics in more respectful ways by
acknowledging we too hold core values we can't fully prove. We might
tap and-or respond to other interests working class critics themselves
may find undervalued in this materialistic culture, such as time with
family or enjoying the wilderness rides those SUVs were supposed to
enable.