Thanks, Raymond, for introducing this topic. Your personal choices on buying a new car can serve as a representative example for all of us when we come to buy a car. Yesterday, I spent a couple of hours sitting in front of the post office, gathering signatures for limiting chain stores. I was smack dab in the middle of the traffic and car problem. The noise from the traffic was remarkable; at times I could hardly carry on a conversation without raising my voice considerably. The size of the vehicles is also remarkable: trucks, trucks and more trucks of all descriptions. Two double trailer gravel trucks rumbled by. So many SUV’s and trucks; they seemed to outnumber the regular cars. Even the regular cars seemed large. I don’t recall seeing one “small” car. In fact, when I see a Metro nowadays, I do a double take. My first car was a Volkswagon bug and my last car was a Ford Fiesta, both very small cars. What has happened to us? Our consciousness as it relates to our car culture is disturbing. Millenium is on to something when he attacks the car culture itself with such vehemence. We are literally choking on cars, and calling it progress in achieving the American Dream. Can you imagine China and India achieving what we have? We are deluded; we cannot see that the car culture is the emperor without clothes. Psychologically, I guess we want to feel powerful, and what can give us that sense of power better than riding in a big car, or even better a truck we need a ladder to get into? Can’t we see that we are still little boys playing “truck” in a sandbox, or little girls admiring those strong boys, soon to become “real men.” We are being manipulated and corrupted by the money interests. The money system is addicted to unsustainable growth, making money out of nothing but paper, and then using taxpayers’ money to feed the addiction. I noticed the headlines today that the economy may slow down next month. Horror of horrors; already there are shocks waves being felt as far away as China. I see this as good news. We have to slow down and size down but this is anathema to the moneyists. We have to make money. Why? Who says so? Did you ever think of that? We have to make love; we don’t have to make money. We can live on love. Have we tried it? So, back to your situation. If I were you; and I’m not, except in a rarified metaphysical sense, I would buy a small, small car, if I were even able to. Think of those ultra small European cars. You would be totally out of place, of course, in this car economy but you would be in synch with the needs of the planet. All this money maneuvering around hybrids, ethanol and God knows what as referenced in your “Green Car Congress” is just a comforting distraction for the most part. It largely misses the point that we all have to think small and go small. Growing corn so we can feed our addiction just shifts the problem and makes it worse for some people. Now there’s money to be made in corn. So what? Same old, same old… We as a culture are addicted to making money, whether it be green, blue or black and blue. Addictions maintain themselves by denial and getting a regular hit. The shit is going to hit the fan when this violently propped up money economy starts to go down. We will panic because the addiction will demand to be fed. When I talk this way, I can feel the channels being turned off as denial turns the dials. A radical change of consciousness is required, not a “green fix,” which is totally under the control of the money masters. When Wallmart, Dow Chemical and the big boys go green, it is time to worry because there is money to be made in dem der green hills, and you can be quite sure there won’t be much left of the hills, except for token pretty window dressing. It’s the money, stupid. Watch “Money Masters” for a healthy dose of reality. By the way, if you had a sustainable community in a place like Matilija Canyon, why couldn’t you bicycle to Ojai? I’m 67 and I can bicycle to and from Ventura. It’s a matter of conditioning and necessity. If the gas runs out, you will have to. Do you have to come to town every day? What about once a week for supplies? Organize a fleet of bicycles? I think we have to think outside the box, think to the root of the problems, not put on green bandaids to allay our addiction to root problems. Visualize the utopia we want and then make use of what modern technology offers, like small cars. Ojai could be totally self sufficient if it had a progressive government that would lead, rather than just being money counters. With all this sunshine, we could be running little cars all over the valley on love, love of sunshine. I could sit at the post office and enjoy the hum of these little miss sunshine cars. It could be a whole new world, combining the best of the old and new. But none of this will happen until we kick the habit. I have worked in drug detox and rehab places as a psychiatric nurse so I know something about addiction. Those are relatively easy to deal with compared to the addiction to money because it so insidious and pervasive as to be virtually invisible. Just sit for a couple of hours at the post office and you can see it in action. A drug addict gets plenty of warnings: his house burns, his wife leaves, his children won’t talk to him, his job goes, his health collapses and his life is threatened; through it all he pretends everything will be OK as long as he can get that next fix. Believe it or not, Ojai as a community is like an addict, not the homeless kind but the socialite kind, the one with lots of money to run cover. The trucks, the water, the chain stores, Frostie, Mallory Way, Los Arboles, the recall, the SLAPPED initiatives, the Iraq war (which the leadership disassociates from) and the endless corruption on all levels are storms on the horizon bearing down on Ojai, threatening a perfect storm. And what do our brave leaders do? Sue citizens who propose initiative solutions, jump on the chain store bandwagon as it pulls out and give lip service to green band aid solutions. I noticed that someone posted a link to a discussion that took place around last October 4, pre-election time and we discussed politics, private property rights, etc. The storm was brewing even then; now it’s worse and getting closer. I was at a concert last evening at the Womens’ Club. The woman singer said how amazed she was to come into a town like Ojai. She raved about Ojai’s uniqueness; and since she and her husband do a lot of traveling, I assume she has seen a lot of places. I put myself in her place, driving into Ojai. True it is beautiful but then I come to Canada Street where Frostie and the Chinaberry Tree used to be. I can just imagine what will go there in their place. Three beautiful trees are gone, and a wonderful small business. For what? Money trees? A bland new money maker dressed up to look old and authentic? Anyone with an ounce of sense can sense the pretense. It’s a complex problem with no easy solution. There is a simple solution but it is not easy, and that is to reform the money system. That’s like fencing a beast who does not want to be fenced. Money is the beast, the 666 of Roman Nero. Money is the reason small cars are not the norm, and why you will have such a hard time even getting a small car. It strikes me that even the Prius is a large car by my standards. I have to be content for now; just fire a shot over the bow of the money cow; you know, the one Moses broke the tablets over, the golden calf in the desert. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Wake up, Ojai. Make love, not money which makes for war.

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Dear Raymond,
Also FYI, the following is a link to a DIY “solar scooter”:
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/PV/pvscooter.htm
Regards,
Eric Williams
Ojai, CA

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