Demonizing SUV's

This is an old saw of mine that was one of several to break through the opiate effects of the mainstream media fog.

I am an SUV owner/operator. I own one, I drive one, I prefer one, especially where I reside now. That being said, I don’t think they are an efficient vehicle nor will they save mankind from his ecological blunders. 

 About eight years ago I became aware of a campaign to demonize SUV owners and brand them the scapegoat for all of societies ills; from foreign oil dependency to road rage to aiding and abetting terrorism, along with pretty much everything else in between. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t make my mind blindly swallow that budding viral meme. This campaign didn’t let up and certainly gained a lot of traction among the then fluff and puff morning talk shows. (this was pre opinion-based news cast days)

I started thinking and asking myself questions. Did I cause our dependency on foreign oil? When I purchased my 8-year-old USED SUV was I subconsciously acting upon a latent psychological road rage disorder? Did I somnambulistically consort with terrorists and plot SUV equipped sortie’s on national targets? I couldn’t discover any corroborating evidence to convict myself. But that conclusion didn’t stop me from thinking and asking further questions.

 How much gasoline did the average FAMILY station wagon of the 1960′s and 70′s suck down? Did we demonize FAMILIES for the oil embargo (cough) of the mid 70′s?

 How many construction vehicles, freight vehicles, earth moving and gigantic strip mining vehicles were belching out chokingly thick black clouds of diesel everyday while squeezing motorists off exit ramps? Emission controls, what a joke. 

 How many ocean-going super tankers that carry said foreign oil across the oceans and all the other sea-going vessels employed in the astronomically huge international shipping business are guzzling oil? A current article states all it takes is 15 of these babies to equal the amount of carbon emitted of all the personal vehicles in America. Only fifteen, and how many exist in the world?

 Let's not even mention airline jet fuel or the war machine’s unbridled consumption of fuels on an hour by hour basis. 

 Those questions only cover the vehicles of the world, not the energy producing plants and manufacturing plants. My examples also pre-date the upward mobility of China and India. Out sourcing, home-grown economic terrorism? Shudder the thought. But I’m getting off topic. 

 These small questions were annoying stumbling blocks to my accepting my own social demonization as being an SUV owner. But there were more questions that involuntarily popped into my brain.

 What about Volcanoes and Super Volcanoes? What kind of carbon and other gases could they release into the air? How much terroristic havoc could they wreak upon the world at large? As frightening as that thought is another took its place in line, what about methane released from the melting Siberian tundra and those huge pockets of it under the ocean waters? Horror of horrors. All of these concepts pre-date our global climate change taxation and carbon trading schemes, er, campaigns.  
 
By now you’re getting the picture. The mainstream media -that catch-all label for mass consumption and mass suggestion- doesn’t operate on the premise that it’s viewers/consumers ask questions or that they routinely engage in any level of critical thinking. I’m suggesting here that you don’t need any higher level of thought than a fifth grader to realize a propaganda campaign when you unconsciously swallow one. 

 Eight years ago, the Big Three car manufacturers could care less about the SUV social crisis. They hadn’t openly admitted bankruptcy yet. Eight years ago, the campaign to trade carbon credits and legislate a carbon tax hadn’t geared up yet. Eight years ago a desperate need to replace a fiat and debt based currency wasn’t common knowledge. What a difference less than a decade makes. If we would only stop, think and ask questions a fifth grader could muster, we might not have to continue swallowing every inane campaign (read propaganda) that the media devises to launch upon us without conscience.

 I still drive an SUV. I still can’t afford a new one. I suffer road rage from time to time, not because of the vehicle I drive but because of the idiot in front of me. I don’t support terrorism of any kind from any source or organized group or government.  I have reduced my commuting time and distances by 80% and am in the market for an affordable, more efficient, used four-wheel truck and am not holding my breath.