Hybrid Cars as a Metaphor for us

My friends just bought a hybrid car. This is a new kind of car that runs on a battery that is constantly recharged by a gasoline engine. It is small, lightweight and gets an average gas mileage in the 40plus range. They have a young son and can afford to buy any car that they choose. I wondered why they didn't buy an SUV?

SUVs are fancy trucks with a specific purpose. They can pull a lot of weight and make a lot of sense if you regularly need to pull a trailer. I understand their other attractions as a few years ago I came very close to buying one. I can remember clearly how it felt at the dealer's showroom. It smelled new and felt super comfortable with its big extra leather and wonderful stereo system. It looked great and made me feel very powerful and safe as I test-drove it. I was very tempted to buy it even though it didn't ride as well as other vans and cars that I had driven and I knew the gas mileage sucked. It felt to me in some ways like an ultimate toy. I rationalized that my family would be safe in it and I could feel that voice telling me that I deserved it. At that time I ended up buying a Volvo.

SUVs in so many ways are like a metaphor for America. We are the biggest and most powerful country in the world. One could possibly describe us collectively as a country that on the exterior is big and well dressed and on the interior as frightened gas guzzling consumers. Our physical safety comes from having one of the largest and best-trained military¹s in the world. As a result of our preoccupation with size we don¹t need to worry about being in right relationship with each other or the rest of the world. After all we are mostly well fed and housed and so we take our privilege for granted, always knowing that our military can use smart bombs on anyone who would dare challenge our status or consumption appetite. But what are we underneath. Are we safe and powerful or really small and afraid, dependent on violence to maintain our stature? I can remember a simple psychological teaching that seems to summarize it for me. ­"The bigger the front, the bigger the back."

I think I would rather become a hybrid than an SUV. Hybrids are not perfect but they do care about right relationships with the earth, with our souls and with our communities. They are small but they are not afraid.

Victor Bremson

August 24, 2002