On Bill Mahar last month, Ian McClellan pointed out that the space around us inside our car does not belong to us.  Because we own the car, we think we own the space inside the car, but we don't.   That space, which feels like personal space, is actually public space, and the way we behave in that public space has a radical impact on the world around us.

I live in LA, so I experience the car culture at its worst.  What I have seen, and I've seen this in myself as well, is a tendency to behave inside a car as though we are anonymous and our behavior doesn't count.  Many civilized, decent people are unapologetic jerks behind the wheel of a car.

Inside our cars, we are strangers in a world full of strangers with big shiny metal bodies, getting away with as much as we can, naughty children who believe the only wrong thing is getting caught.  After a while, this consciousness seeps into the culture and degrades the social contract; it does something to people's minds and souls, to spend so much time in their cars.

I can't stand to watch TV car ads, just can't stand it.  Everything that's wrong with our culture and way of life is epitomized by TV car ads: monstrous, insectoid planet-destroyers wrapped up in glamorous, seductive packages, with an impressive price tag and lots of fine print.  In a sane society, TV car ads would be recognized as the true obscenity they are, and be outlawed. It's just pure unadulterated narcissism, which happens to be a personality disorder that often becomes malignant.  

So I guess my point, aside from the fact that I can be at least as boring as Chris (LOL!), is that there's an attitude that goes along with living in a car culture... an attitude that I see manifesting in certain internet behaviors.  Maybe we should start building attitude parking lots.  You can park the car, so park the attitude..... HERE.

Bottom line, there's really no such thing as "anonymity," unless you're dead.