While psychologists have long accepted the premise that mass hysteria was a key factor in the great American exodus to Canada and Mexico in January of 2012, many also speculate that a form of mass-populous psychosis may have contributed to this society’s ultimate demise. Although virtually nothing is known about this period following the disintegration of the North American Communication Grid, artifacts from this period indicate world-wide religious warfare, fuel scarcity followed by severe food shortages, and then finally, total collapse of the American financial system. And as I investigate the sites around me, I also see clear evidence of excessive levels of human irrationality–especially in light of the severe energy crises the citizenry was facing as their society was collapsing. Irrationality that may well have accelerated this nation’s downfall.

With fuel costs reaching astronomical prices (perhaps as much as $10.00 per liter–$100.00 by today’s standards), most of the world turned to more conservative modes of transportation–very small electric automobiles, or an array of two- and three-wheeled vehicles. Yet, in scene after scene I find behemoth-sized vehicles amongst the far more fuel-efficient models, indicating a clear, irrational disregard for the crises at hand. What would prompt individuals of this time period to own these resource-draining modes of transportation–these “Hummers”? Do they represent a paramilitary security force? Are they symbols of a revolutionary power structure? Or do they simply represent the last vestiges of an elite, wealthy class’s attempt to cling to a fading social status? To shed some light on this seemingly illogical phenomenon, I look to other past civilizations for motivation.

Throughout early recorded history, size was directly correlated with status and power: the Egyptians’ building of bigger and bigger pyramids . . . the Romans’ construction of larger and larger stadiums . . . the world-wide national obsession with erecting the tallest building . . . all attest to this bigger-is-better equation. Color too played a primary role in conveying status–rare purple dye extracted from the now extinct nudibranch sea slug was used to color ancient Chinese Emperors’ robes . . . rich blue-black powder drawn from rare indigo plants of the Amazon Jungle was used to color the eyes of Inca royalty . . . and of course the glimmer of jade, silver, and gold had long signaled boundless wealth. Indeed, the allure of size and color was indicative of invincibility, power, wealth, and status for millennium. And as history tells us, the people of the United States were among the most status-oriented populous ever to occupy this planet.

Since the very inception of the automobile, this invention became an American status symbol. For the first thirty years of its existence, only the rich and powerful could afford them–often driving them on private, paved roads surrounding their estates (as no public roads yet existed). And even as the automobile became more affordable to a broader sector of American society, the elite devised ways to emphasize their exclusivity by building special courses where they could race and compete with them–usually having them modified to achieve faster speeds–while painting them bright colors for additional status. There is every indication that this relationship between man and machine followed this progression to the very end of American history.

Thus, with a culture so materialistically ‘status oriented,’ perhaps these monstrously large vehicles simply represent the superlative degree, the natural progression of excessiveness Americans had reached by the time of their ultimate demise. A symptom of mass psychosis? Perhaps. A contributing factor to their downfall? Quite probably. But one thing I can say with certainty as I gaze out at the sea of automobiles both large and small, these machines were more than modes of transportation to the American people. In the end, they were their GODS.

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           There’s a vehicle which have captured the taste of the wealthy unlike any other. It has a credible history as a military vehicle which had proven its worth in the battlefield. At peacetime, its manufacturers resurrected it into a civilian livery attainable by those who have enough life investments to pay for its engine fuel consumption way beyond the average consumption of a common land vehicle. So if you are wealthy enough and could afford to do the humming as you drive this mechanical brute feeling the victory of your businesses over the failing world economy, then you indeed deserve to own this vehicle or any of its civilian variants.

            It started in 1992 when AMG started selling a civilian versions of the Humvee to the public under the brand name “Hummer” which eventually led to the selling of this brand name to General Motors 6 years later (Wikipedia). The rest as we knew it, the Hummer found its way to please the “Terminator” (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and never did stop until we see it on CSI Miami transporting Lt. Horatio Caine (David Caruso) from work to the crime scene. At present, a lot of celebrities and the rich (famous and unspoken) have laid their hands on their personal Hummer navigating their way through urban destinations and rough roads of the countryside. There should be no serious issues ranging from tight road traffic to an empty fuel tank, the latter which would only prompt the driver to stop humming leisurely when the gas station is out of sight or he is out of cash.

The Hummer was out of shape but Lt. Horatio Caine is intact.

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A six-wheeled version Hummer would be annoying to park

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Camping in style with the Hummer

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Hummer Limo

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What’s inside the Hummer limo

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Hummer H2 Safari

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Hummer H3 Alpha

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Hummer H4

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              May I have imparted an idea of getting what it’s worth for burning your money if you have loads of it. Burn the counterfeit and exchange genuine bills with either of these.

Also in this category:

The Humvee through History

          The Humvee was a nickname coined out from the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV), a US Army project awarded to AM General to produce a highly advanced 4Wheel Drive (4WD) vehicle with greater resistance to enemy firepower like sniper fires, land mines and similar threats on the battlefield. The first prototype designated the M998 was rolled out sometime in 1979 and after preliminary testing and design refinements, AM General received a confirmation for the initial production contract of 55,000 units HMMWVs to be delivered by 1985 (Wikipedia).

          The rest was history, and the Humvee became the primary land transport vehicle of almost all leading armed forces in the whole world (except of course non-NATO member countries). It had led armed forces to all the leading conflict in the planet, from its first combat debut in Operation Just Cause, the US invasion of Panama in 1989, Operation Desert Storm in 1991 and Operation Iraqi Freedom, another US invasion of Iraq in 2003 (Wikipedia). True to its purpose, the vehicle could be seen in all sorts of livery to suit a particular mission when intended.

Troop Transport

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Medical Transport

Image by Wikimedia Commons

Surface to Air Missile Platform

Image by Wikimedia Commons

Snow Operations

Image by Wikimedia Commons

Communications Platform

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In 2005, there were nearly 6,420,000 car accidents. The result of these millions of car crashes was billions of dollars in damage, and countless people injured and dead. One such accident was on October 13th, 2005. 2 teenage sisters, ages 15 and 17, along with their 15 year old passenger, crashed their SUV into a utility pole. The crash resulted in a fatality for the two girls, and serious injuries to the 15 year old third passenger in the back seat. Did you know that in the US alone, there is one fatal crash every 13 minutes? Right now, car collisions are the leading cause of death for teenagers, which is not surprising at all. 16 years of age is not even considered legally an adult, and the 1st year drivers are 3 times as likely to die in a crash than drivers of any other age. As drivers, 16 and 17 year old’s fatal collision probability increases with each passenger. There are about 6,000 teenagers killed in car accidents each year. That’s a problem. However, not only are these kids killing themselves, they are killing other people too. Considering not just the safety of yourself, but also the safety of your family and peers, we must make a decision: Are we prepared to allow these 16 year olds- these children, handle the weapons society calls, “Cars?”

What are the reactions to people when you tell them that 6,000 teenagers have died in crashes? It could be something from anywhere like, “Woah! We need to fix something!” to, “Who cares, it was their own choice not to drive carefully.” Well, no matter how you say it, 6,000 deaths is 6,000 deaths. And in fact, most, if not all of those 6,000 lives could be saved if the driving age was legally 18. Why you ask? Because at 18, you are officially an adult, and therefore are able to responsibly make decisions for yourself. At 16, you are still a teen- a child- and are not as able to make crucial life death decisions as the adults. At 16, you are probably still living with your parents, and think that if you get involved in an accident on the road, your parents will handle it for you, or talk to the cops for you, and do whatever is your responsibility is for you. Additionally, since teenagers of 16 years have the most crashes, in comparison to other ages, their insurance rates are very high. However, as you get older, the rates drop. At 19 years of age the insurance rates can drop 28 %. That all sounds really exciting, but isn’t it reasonable? After all, at 19 years of age, you are already more responsible and capable of driving. Also, researchers have shown that teenagers have developed a sense of immortality and the, “It can’t possibly happen to me” thought process. 16 year olds are also more worried about getting a ticket than of crashing- studies have shown that. Additionally, in 16 year olds, speeding was involved in 37% of crashes. You see, the point that I’m trying to make is that the minds of 16 year olds are not yet fully developed, and therefore not capable of making decisions like the fully developed minds of 18 year olds can. That is why I believe we should put some laws into action that could fix this catastrophe.

Of course, if I get everyone to say, “16 year olds should not drive cars” none of the 16 year olds would care. No matter what we say, nobody will care until it is a law that comes with a fine if you break it, because without consequences, the teens will do anything they want. It has become necessary to pass the following 2 laws, because if we don’t, we will lose more lives every day- I mean, 13 minutes. The first law is the most obvious- it would be to change the age in which you may legally operate a motor vehicle to 18. In this way, like I said earlier, we can reduce the number of teen-inflicted fatal crashes. Not only are we saving the lives of teens, we are saving the lives of other people in which the teens might kill over a crash. The second law would be to reduce the max speed limit of any road to 50 miles per hour. This way, new drivers can keep up with the traffic and prevent accidents. If we pass these two laws, we would save countless lives. I mean, look at those countless teenagers who died each year. Wouldn’t they be in favor of these two laws? So ladies and gentleman, if we work hard enough, we can put these two laws in action. As a result, those 6,000 boys and girls would not have died in vain. So come on! Are we going to save lives or not?

In conclusion, 16 year olds are not mature enough to handle vehicles that can cause serious damage to people and property. Instead, the driving age should be moved up to 18 years of age. Still, there will be accidents, so to lessen the accidents even more, the speed limit of each road should be set to 50 miles per hour. You know, if the laws I proposed get passed, maybe we’ll see the day where no one will be harmed by some else in a car crash. Maybe in, I don’t know, the year 2038, the amount of fatal crashes will be 0. Then again, it’s just a dream. But dreams are things too you know. Without dreams, inventions, companies, even civilization itself would have not been possible. My dream is for someday, no more people get killed in a car crash. And as long as I live, I’ll keep dreaming. Thank you.

–Hansen Shi

Carbon dioxide emissions are the most prevalent in fossil fuel burning. Emissions are correlated to MPG, lower MPG equals higher emissions. The United States is tenth per capita in emissions but is the single largest emitter of Carbon dioxide (Millennium Indicators, United Nations 2007). In fact, in 2006, the United States emitted an estimated 2575 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from oil related use (Eia.doe.gov, U.S. carbon dioxide emissions). These emissions pollute the air in addition to contributing to the greenhouse effect that leads to global warming.

The United States is a gas hog; we use 3700 gallons of gas a second! In the U.S. cars use 40% of the oil. By setting a standard fuel economy we could drastically reduce use. For example, A 40 mpg standard by 2012 could reduce oil usage by 50 billion barrels (2.1 trillion gallons). Legislation to this degree is not currently in effect but there has been a bill passed for 2020 for 35 MPG. The 40 MPG standard could save money as well for a total of $3000-$5000 dollars per car at the pump. Other methods are possible to decrease oil usage such as E85 (ethanol-oil mix) and hydrogen fuel cells that have zero emissions and use little gasoline. Other possibilities are electric cars as well as hybrids (Beyond Oil, NRDC).

There are 15 million barrels being used a day in the U.S. and 9 million of those are being imported. Every year that’s 115 billion dollars flowing out of the country. The trade deficit (the difference in values of imports and exports) weakens the dollar and about a third of the trade deficit is from oil. (OIL!, Dr James B. Calvert) If we import over half of our oil just one supplier could make gas prices skyrocket. For example, Hugo Chavez the president of Venezuela threatened to stop exports of oil if the U.S. perused military action in Iran. Venezuela exports 3.2 million barrels to the U.S. a day, and if they stopped the prices could rise $200 dollars a barrel or about $4 a gallon (Chavez renews attacks, 2007) If we decrease our gas usage we will have a better economy and decrease our risk.

In a survey conducted by Pew Research of a 1000 only 19 percent of the participants favored a bill that had lower MPG standards. Few oppose lower standards and the ones that do have poor support and little evidence. In an editorial from MSNBC that was against high standards: “I choose to pay to fill my gas guzzling SUV because I like it and enjoy driving it” (I love my SUV despite its MPG, Colin Hurlock). If all that matters is choice our world would be a mess. We can’t do it with anything else so why do it to the environment?

How can this problem be combated? There are many solutions, if you are in the position buy a fuel efficient car or a car that runs on E85 or possibly a hybrid. If you are not in that position contact your congressperson and demand higher standards. Most importantly, you can send your thoughts to companies that don’t have fuel efficient cars because they know who buys their cars; the people.