Apegrrl's Blog: Random Rants

Of Elves, Otters and SUVs

I must confess that when I first heard of the Earth Liberation Front’s action, burning a Hummer dealership and vandalizing several SUVs, my internal response was a resounding “huzzah!” Like Fight Club’s Project Mayhem (though with a more coherent message), the prodigal “eco-terrorists” had struck a blow against the corporate-consumer system that is crippling our society. Cool. Like those “I’m Changing the Climate: Ask Me How!” bumper stickers, the idea filled me with childish, subversive glee.

While it’s not something I would nor could have ever done, it is something I often fantasize about. Riding in my partner’s car up 680 to visit his mom, we joke about the glaring omission of photon torpedoes in the design of his ‘98 Beetle. Maybe just water-balloons filled with paint would be satisfaction enough. It’s not that we want to hurt anyone. We just want to express our outrage at all the gas-guzzling road hogs and the inconsiderate morons who drive them.

Then I heard that the ELF action had triggered a pro-SUV rally in response. Oops. But really, the problem here was that they acted on the impulses of their rage, and got only anger in return. Reaping, sowing, that sort of thing.

As an anthropologist, I have to look at it from the perspective of culture. What in our society has made these behemoths acceptable, even attractive to some people? How the hell can we change that? I’ve thought about these questions for years, and just a couple weeks ago, I thought of another example that could be very informative to the SUV problem: fur.

Until very recently, furs were widely sought after. They were originally a very practical way to keep warm in the winter. When human populations were smaller and mostly agrarian, furs were probably a sustainable solution in colder climates, if a bit prone to cruelty. But with the proliferation of firearms and widespread trade, fur coats became a status symbol of the urban elite, the epitome of style and comfort. As supplies (read “wild fur-bearing-mammal populations”) declined, furs became quite expensive, but demand remained high.

The animal rights movement was able to reverse this trend. Nowadays, fur is considered somewhat aberrant. How did they pull it off? One word: SHAME. For a while in the 80’s, people who owned furs became afraid to wear them out on the town, expecting to be splashed with blood, or at the very least jeered, hissed at and spat upon by protesters. When people couldn’t help but think of these protests against cruelty every time they saw a fur coat, fur coats lost their glamour for consumers, and furriers lost a lot of their market.

Can the campaign against SUVs learn from the anti-fur crusaders of previous decades? The civil disobedience that diminished the furrier’s image was not without vandalism. Ruining a coat with blood or red paint is certainly wanton property destruction, though clearly less dangerous than ELF’s penchant for arson. But its impact was not primarily through the destruction, but through the use of image to spread a potent message of shame on those who would purchase and promote such ghastly items.

Can SUV drivers be subject to a similar sense of public revulsion? I think so. While I am sure that a few SUV drivers have a legitimate need for their vehicles (say, people driving rescue dogs to disaster sites, maybe, f’r’instance), the vast majority have them only because they’ve be conned into believing that the SUV is keeping their family safe, or because they think SUVs are, well, glamorous.

The safety thing is a combination of misconception and myth. Sure, while your kids are in an SUV, they may be slightly safer on the road than they would have been in a compact car (though even that’s disputable). But there’s no question that the presence of so many SUVs on America’s roads increases the threat to your kids the rest of the time, not only from their increased risk of injury if they’re pedestrians, bicyclists or in smaller cars in accidents with an SUV, but also because of the indisputable air-quality, climate, and political repercussions of having so many oversized vehicles out there wasting fossil fuels. What’s worse, these negative impacts are felt by the rest of us, those that have responsibly chosen not to drive SUVs. We’re also victims of the space that selfish SUV drivers take up, in parking lots and on crowded freeways. How dare they do that to everyone else? Why do we let them get away with being so clearly inconsiderate?

ELF going after dealerships is like the government’s mistakes in the “drug war” – it just makes the market more lucrative for competitors when you take out one major dealer. The only sane way to stop it is to reduce demand. For drugs, this will require a major restructuring of our culture, turning us away from a population of consumers expecting instant relief from the pain and ennui of our social alienation through the purchase and ingestion of some commodity. But for SUVs, the solution may be simpler.

Some may choose direct SUV vandalism: those “I’m Changing the Climate: Ask Me How!” bumper stickers; perhaps splashes of green paint to remind us of how SUVs contribute to the greenhouse effect; and maybe, sometimes, tire-slashing or other disabling of SUVs in mall parking lots, with lots of notice posted, etc. to minimize any harm beyond simple inconvenience. I would never advocate such law breaking, of course (well, at least, I don’t think I would), but this would spread the message of shame with some efficacy.

What people of conscience need to do is work on changing people’s mental associations with SUVs, and changing the images of those who would own them. Can we follow the driver down the street chanting "Shame on you!" when we spot one being parked downtown? Could we insist that all passenger cars and light trucks come with a display of average gas milage for the last 100 miles visible on the outside of the vehicle? Where appeals to reason and consideration for others have failed, perhaps fear of being shamed can win the day.

SHAME ON SUV DRIVERS!

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11/18/03 Pull the Bull
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If you're so inclined, have a look at my idea for a Missionaria Protectiva to improve literacy, democracy and environmental awareness in the countries with the most biodiversity.

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last updated 09-Dec-2004
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Of Elves, Otters and SUVs

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