CARBARISM: CIVILISING THE AUTOMOBILE (original) (raw)

Instead of a debate about whether the automobile is good or bad, this article will argue that it is more useful to carefully consider how the automobile should live in its natural environment in a way that is compatible with human development. We should, I will argue, now develop a framework to civilize the automobile. Civilization is probably harder to define in a positive sense than in a negative one; i.e. what goes against civilization is generally easier to agree upon that what advances it. Thus, I offer the concept of 'carbarism'. This is not meant to be a blanket epithet but a rubric for identifying social and economic applications of the automobile that could be said to be 'barbaric' in the sense of degrading human civilization, and hence to be avoided. Technology is never neutral with respect to society. Its contribution to civilization can just as easily be negative as positive. Any technology should to be introduced into the wild (so to speak) in a way that ensures that civilization is advanced along with technical progress. The automobile thus far has been simultaneously social advancer and destroyer but it is not too late to begin to civilize the automobile. Some of this involves undoing, slowly, design and institutional mistakes of the past. Some of this involves progressing technological advancement of automobility in a way different from that of the past. But whatever moves may be made the advance of civilization in a broad sense and the avoidance of barbaric uses of the car (carbarism) should be kept front and centre.