If “Fur is murder”, what are Hummers?
Warning: If you are a Hummer owner who has self-esteem issues and you use your Hummer to compensate, I recommend that you stop reading now. If you proceed, don’t say you weren’t warned.
I have to come clean. I hate Hummers.
I am generally a pretty peaceful, non-aggressive, non-violent person, but when I see a Hummer, all of that changes. Nice, polite Eric all of a sudden turns into mad Eric. You’ve probably heard of “road rage” and “air rage”. Well, I think I have “Hummer rage”.
Sometimes I have visions of ramming my Prius into Hummers. “That’ll show them!” I think to myself. And then I consider the physics involved and realize that not only would my Prius be totaled, but I am not sure that it would do much more than scratch the Hummer.
I have thought of producing bumper stickers that say things like, “My ego is more important than your planet” and then sticking these on Hummers. But then I wind up having to contemplate whether that would qualify as a crime (destruction of personal property? vandalism?) and I realize I’m not willing to make defacing Hummers my act of civil disobedience.
I really do think there is some clinical psychosis involved here.
I always thought I was alone in this, but it looks like the nice folks at FUH2.com found a way of bringing together like-minded folks to “express their opinions” about Hummers. Is it silly? Yes. But, it is probably a slightly healthier outlet than the others I have contemplated.
I like to imagine that people generally are good and generally try to do the right thing, but I can’t think of people who drive Hummers as anything other than greedy little people who have ego problems or are trying to compensate for some other short coming in their lives.
I’m sure Freud would have a field day if he were alive to see people driving these beasts (and listening to my rantings!)
To be clear, I don’t like normal SUVs; but I understand that when you have a family and are constantly carting around kids, animals, groceries, etc. that an SUV might be necessary. It serves a functional purpose.
I also completely understand construction workers or folks like that driving huge trucks. They need the power or capacity for its functionality.
But, there is no practical purpose to a Hummer; it is all about ego.
And worse than that, their ego trips harm us all. They chug enormous amounts of gas. They emit tons of pollution. And they endanger every one of us who “share” the roadways with these monsters.
I was thinking about this recently and wondering whether Hummers will become today’s version of fur coats. Something that was once seen as cool and chic and a status symbol, but over time was seen as decadent and immoral.
I have to say that I don’t support the extreme tactics (like throwing blood or fake maggots on people wearing fur) used by organizations like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).
But I certainly do think that there is something to be learned from the long campaign that they have waged to educate and change the opinions of society on this topic.
Fifty years ago, fur was hip and fashionable. Today, it seems like mainstream society has come to see it as unnecessary. In fact, many major retailers like Ann Taylor, J Crew, Wet Seal, Polo Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, and Eddie Bauer have completely stopped selling fur products.
It made me wonder whether there will be any similar backlash against Hummers.
Over time, will the popular opinion wind up judging Hummers as over-the-top and uncalled for? Will people who drive them be shamed into giving them up?
I was talking to my wife about this and she made an interesting point about fur. She surmised that the success of the fur campaign could be as much about class issues as anything else. It is much easier to turn the masses against something when the masses don’t use that product and it is only used by “them”, especially if you already resent “them.” She pointed out that a campaign against leather would probably be much less likely to succeed since common, everyday working folks use leather gloves, leather shoes, etc.
In that same vein, I wonder if people will be more likely to resent Hummer drivers because “normal people” don’t drive Hummers; Hummers fall into the same camp as fur — an eccentric display of wealth.
Or maybe the real solution is to change the CAFE standards to cover Hummers and then let GM deal with the mess it created.
Epilogue
A couple of months ago, I had a gut check on my feelings about Hummers.
My company was having a big important business dinner with executives from a Japanese company.
We were all going out to an expensive dinner and our execs thought that we should do something “special” for our guests.
So, we decided to rent a “stretch Hummer”.
Now, if a Hummer is bad, a stretch Hummer is just downright evil.
When I found out that I would be going to dinner in a stretch limo, my head started swimming.
I needed to go to this dinner and participate. But, how could I, in good conscience, ride in something I am so opposed to?
I figured that even though it would only create more pollution, I would drive separately; at least then I wouldn’t feel any direct guilt in this.
I knew that this was a somewhat silly response — how can creating more pollution be better. But, I just couldn’t bring myself to participating.
The good news is that my boss listened and wound up getting rid of the stretch Hummer altogether. Yea! Go boss!
on January 31st, 2007 at 12:19 am
Hi Eric,
Thanks for the great work. I completely agree with the Hummer story. They are better than actually driving around a fully armored tank, but only just. My wife always wants to give the fuh2.com “salute” to any Hummer she sees on the road.
Thanks,
Rob
on January 31st, 2007 at 1:09 am
Another entertaining Hummer site brought to you by the Sierra Club
http://hummerdinger.org/
I too hate them, and have considered ramming them with my Civid Hybrid… but I was also thinking about making up some bumper stickers that say something like “Environment? What Environment?” and sticking them on all the parked Hummers I can find.
on January 31st, 2007 at 7:38 am
Mostly, I think I agree with what you say here. I also don’t like Hummers and think that they do, too often, represent a runaway ego. Having said that, I don’t think the analogy with fur is apt — and so don’t think you needed to quite face the existential crisis that you did. To make fur requires killing an animal, often several, and the methods at least in the past were sometimes quite cruel. The trade-off between wearing a fur and an animal’s life was direct. The trade-off between riding in a Hummer and the break-up of ice shelves is not nearly so direct. There are a lot of other competing things contributing to global climate change, many of them far more consequential. The problem isn’t an occasional ride in a Hummer — caveat; I have never ridden one — but public policy that allows them to be built without counting against CAFE standards, without considering protection necessary from them in the case of an accident. If there were only a few Hummers on the road — no problem. Allowing limousine services to run stretch Hummers — cool. But the toll they take on the environment needs to be factored into their cost.
on February 1st, 2007 at 8:09 pm
Your wife sounds like one very smart woman. You are lucky to have her.
on July 20th, 2007 at 12:38 am
You’re all idiots. While I have to admit that I’m no fan of Hummers, I do know two people that have owned, or do own one. They have both been subjected to scorn and vandalism because of their vehicle. I can only assume that you people are all pissed off because you think Hummers use too much gas when, in fact, they are better on gas than many other common vehicles on the road today. In a report I saw last year, 8 of the top 10 gas guzzlers sold in America were GM trucks like the Yukon and their big pickup truck. One of the others was a Lamborghini and I honestly can’t remember what that last one was but it wasn’t a Hummer.
I’m all for saving gas too, actually I’m more in favor of finding an alternative to gas, but that’s a very complex issue involving a lot more than just what power plant can run a vehicle. But you have to understand the reality that many people may have very different needs from their vehicle than you may have. Not everyone can, or wants to, drive a Prius. Plus think of all the nasty chemicals in your Prius’ Nickel-Metal Hydride batteries and how will they be disposed when their life ends in a few short years. Also, you’ll never save enough money on gas over a standard engine in a small car to make that Prius financially viable.
My point is that your disdain of gas guzzling vehicles seems completely misplaced. Maybe you should do some research and find out which vehicles are actually the biggest culprits rather than just pick on one that gets all the attention. But to actually vandalize someone else’s property just because of your sense of propriety is just plain wrong – and you know it. Your parents should be ashamed of the way they raised you.
on July 20th, 2007 at 5:29 am
Scott, I can see that you are well-schooled in the fine art of debate; I am sure your parents are proud.
on January 1st, 2008 at 2:47 am
I’m not quite sure I understand your rage. As Scott mentions, H2s actually aren’t as bad on gas as everyone seems to believe. I’ve owned a dozen worse vehicles from Toyota Land Cruisers to heavy duty Fords and Dodge trucks. I also own a H2. I’ve been the victim of vandalism and can’t for the life of me conceive how someone thinks that making me re-paint my H2 makes a point or helps the environment. Further, I don’t understand the assumtion that I’m automatically trying to kill the enviroment. I’m a Hummer owner, I’m a farmer, I’m also a gainfully employed professional, an active hunter and a rabid activist for preservation of land. I know many Hummer owners like myself who have dedicated thousands of OUR OWN acres of land toward wetland and natural prarie preservation. When I get flipped off by someone who knows nothing of me, has never met me, I wonder…what have they done(besides being angry) to help the earth? . I don’t understand it and I hope I never do. :-/
on March 18th, 2008 at 11:26 am
man get a life. you probably dont have any intreasts in life so u go and talk bad about the Hummer car man it is made for moving from one place to another (transportation) and some people use it because it is safe (fact)
duh… not a small made out of plastic car witch wouldnt be as distructibe in your case. probablyone that runs on battery. its ok if u cant afford a hummer.