Hummer almost caught on film doing useful work

What's in your status symbol?

Posted by biodiversivist (Guest Contributor) at 6:47 PM on 26 May 2007

Read more about: green living | cars | consumerism

That's right. I actually saw a Hummer pulling a trailer with stuff in it yesterday. Although stunned, I recovered in time to get a shot of his trailer as he pulled away from the transfer station. Coincidentally, I was also pulling a trailer on my bike (also visible in the lower right hand corner). We smirked at one another as we passed. I think it's adorable how he painted is little red wagon to match his big red Hummer.

Hummers are a joke in some circles and a huge badge of honor in others. Not long ago, while I was over in Kirkland, which is a wealthy suburb of Seattle, I counted eight or so Hummers in the span of half an hour. In Seattle, just on the other side of Lake Washington, you could easily count that many Priuses in that time frame.

I make fun of this guy only because that is one way we establish status symbols. Each monkey troop tries to build a case as to why their symbols or values are better, just as car ads constantly try to do. Although not conscious of the act, this guy is advertising the fact that he makes enough money to drop $50K on a worthless vehicle (or less impressively, at least make the monthly payments on one). By riding a bike with a trailer I am advertising other things (what, I'm not sure).

Personally, I think dropping that kind of money on a Hummer indicates shallowness of thought. But, which one of us will get all the chicks? Do chicks really care? Do red Hummers attract shallow chicks? Never mind that I am happily married with children, the programming is still there because we are by our nature serially monogamous social primates.

Not many of us consciously realize why we dress nice, comb our hair, and strive in general to keep our homes clean and maintained. But if you pay attention, you will notice a loop playing in the back of your mind as you leap into other people's minds:

"Wow, your kitchen is beautiful."

"Why, thank you. We designed it ourselves."

"And your yard and organic garden are so well maintained. Where do you find the time and energy?"

"Ah, it's nothing really, all in a day's work."

It's natural. It is the way we have evolved. Like walking upright, we have little choice in the matter. Ultimately, for whatever reasons, our genes build brains that dump happy juice when we think we have scored. People will practically kill themselves for status. They will climb mountains, base jump, race motorcycles, run marathons, and work endless hours in a cubicle, you name it. However, we do have the choice to promote and choose more environmentally benign symbols, be they material possessions or lifestyles.

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Our answer? Stop watching TV

My husband and I were just talking about this tonight. How did we come to need so much stuff? Our answer. Advertising. It's always there to remind us of how much more we could have, if only we were better.

It's like this with fashion. It comes and it goes, but in a three decade period, bell bottoms were in, they were out, and they were in again. And again, out. Who decides this stuff?

We gave up cable a few years ago and watch a lot less TV because of it. Now we don't really know about the newest innovation in room fresheners.

Anyhow, I feel you on the Hummer front. I take my girls to this great playground in this really awful, cookie-cutter neighborhood. There's a Hummer parked right across the street from the park. On the plus side, it's always parked there. I imagine the owner can't afford the fuel it costs to drive it.

by Christine Gardner at 7:25 PM on 26 May 2007

It's The Cheerleaders

When guys can "roll" and pick up chicks in an Aveo...then times will have changed.

by jabailo at 8:21 PM on 26 May 2007

It's the tax break

When Hummer buyers stop getting the tax break that was intended for small farmers and construction workers to get when they bought heavy machinery... I'll be a lot happier.

Biodiesel Information

Alternative Fuel All The Way

by biomark at 9:26 PM on 26 May 2007

Sigh, for once jabailo is right. It's status.

The currency of status right now gives a guy who spends his time at peace protests and farmers markets exactly zero clout in the dating market. Possibly negative clout.

Until devoted environmentalism suddenly and drastically improves a young man's chance of getting some reproductive practice we are wasting our time here.

In my college town the number of local, young, guys at environmental events are counted on the fingers of one hand. The number of guys with monster pick-ups visible downtown on any given Friday night count in the dozens.

Even the cyclists drive big trucks. Yesterday I saw a four-ton diesel pickup with four bicycles in the back. A massive contradiction in terms.

It's really up to the ladies.

Put the Carbon Back

by Pangolin at 10:43 PM on 26 May 2007

Excellent point

Christine--good point. It's really amazing how different the world is when you experience it without TV mediating for you. We used to use our TV to watch DVDs, but we got rid of the TV and DVD player and now just use the computer to see the DVDs. (I am proud to say that I've never given so much as a single thin dime to any form of pay TV service.)

The funny thing is, I was reading Al Gore's new book and he talks about TV as the root of many evils quite a bit (making the arguments Neil Postman and Jerry Mander made years ago in 'Amusing Ourselves to Death' and 'Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television,' although not so elegantly) and I got to thinking about Gristmill and the increasing frequency with which this blog uses video clips.

It seems that even in an environmental discussion blog using an interactive medium that allows all literate users to contribute, we are unable to leave video behind fully ... a worrisome sign, if you take Gore's arguments seriously, I think.

The 5% Project

by JMG at 10:46 PM on 26 May 2007

Pangolin --

Smart women know what overcompensation is about. If I were a footloose young man in your town, I'd get myself a cute electric scooter or a Zap car and go to a lot of environmental events with it.

Guys who think that what you own determines how often you get to bump uglies are generally those who don't bump uglies too often, and they want to blame it on something external, like the absence of whatever it is they can't afford to own.

The 5% Project

by JMG at 11:00 PM on 26 May 2007

A Zap car?

Well,in the personals women are always saying how they like to laugh.....

A man's better off skipping cars and going with one of these(mine's on backorder). . Check out this blog. At least you tighten up all those loose parts. But there's LOTS of young guys biking solo around my town.

Like the song says..."Girls don't like boys, girls like cars and money." When that formula is reversed in the mind of college age men and women in the US the planet has a chance. Not before.

Put the Carbon Back

by Pangolin at 11:38 AM on 27 May 2007

Nice links, Pangolin

I was checking one of those out at the critical mass ride Friday. There is a Seattle ride tomorrow for people to show off their bike cargo hauling capacity. Hope it stops raining. Note the electric motor in the one picture.

In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

by biodiversivist at 4:23 PM on 27 May 2007

Gregg Sundin! Woof!

And Nate Boxer is quite negotiable too.

(Of course I am referring to the cast of characters in Pangolin's Xtracycle link.)

The interesting one is the very pretty Sean Maclean, who evidently would have no problem attracting attention anywhere he went.

But I really do not understand how this fits into BioD's picture of the XY crowd doing everything they can to "be fruitful and multiply," the first human-directed commandment in the Bible, sometimes known as "sowing one's wild oats," though that is not quite the same thing.

In Sean's case, one cannot help noticing the stretch-pants, in abhorring which I heartily join BioD, though he may very well be one of the very few people in the world who can get away with them. Then there is also the super-nerdifying front basket -- what sacrifices we make, for the sake of efficiency!

We really need to lassoo young Sean, and ask him such questions as: Do you ride this kind of vehicle in order to be attractive to women?; Can you conclude that you are in fact more attractive to women directly because of this vehicle choice of yours?; Would you consider replacing the rubber handles on the handlebars with the kind that Pee-Wee Herman has, with multi-colored streamers, as well as adding a little bell?

Unfortunately, there is a rather more mean side to the Darwinian urge to be seen as "studly." Yesterday, on our return to NYC, we were passed in the Holland Tunnel by the kind of car which is pleasantly referred to in some circles as a "penis-mobile," in this case a yellow Lamborghini the roof of which could hardly have measured four feet off the ground. In principle, anyone could have been driving it -- the windows were of course shaded, so who knows -- , but due to prejudice about such vehicles, and who their drivers must be, one would be surprised, and perhaps disappointed, if the driver turned out to be something other than a good-looking young man.

By contrast, in spite of the presence of Gregg, Nate and young Sean in the Xtracycle gallery, the majority were rather un-studly.

So I suppose one could mount an ethical pro-efficiency anti-fossil-fuels argument, that the un-studly types must be bought off or otherwise suppressed, and these Xtracycles must henceforth be sold only to young men who pass a kind of audition.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 3:22 PM on 29 May 2007

Grow Up

I honestly never understood why environmentalists get upset when they see Hummers. I suppose the people at AM General built a vehicle that is designed to bring up memories in everyone who was abused sexually as a child. A Hummer is a for the most part a Suburban with full time all wheel drive. It has the same engine and transmission as a GMC Denali or Cadillac Escalade. Yet it gets so much flak from all these "green" people who were forced to take it up the butt when they were kids. You have the right to your opinion, I personally believe that motorcycles are a bit insane. They are completely dangerous. The difference is that I don't flip off people who drive them or go on the internet and criticize them. Think for a minute and decide what gives you the right to stereotype people and act like an asshole just because of what they drive. If someone has a Hummer, they probably had to work hard for it as they aren't cheap. They had to pay extra for the safety, the offroad prowess, the luxury interior. They are also paying for the gas. None of this reflects something that you should get mad over. There is no reason that when you see a Hummer on the road that you should unzip your pants and try to twist your dick off.

The fact that you drive, even if it is a Prius, makes your entire arguement a moot point. Last time I checked the Prius still ran on gas. If you really want to make a difference, use public transportation or ride your fucking bike.

BTW, Grow the FUCK UP.

by chestah at 1:42 PM on 17 Jul 2008

ADVERTISING POLICY

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