Long Live the Hummer!

It is really mesmerizing the different kinds of cars that exist today. And encouraging, we should add. Many of us have gone through the unique experience of purchasing a new car. After we reconcile our transportation needs with our mechanical passions, after we eliminate a shiny and impractical convertible and any other captivating but intolerable model, some of us, full of restraint, intelligence and modesty, will choose the best and most virtuous of the models. It goes from 0 to 60 mph in 6 seconds, it never overheats, in an accident it protects us as though we were made of Baccarat crystal, it smells like new and fine purse, and all at the perfect price. After making the careful and calculated choice, we are convinced that there is no other in the world that could compare. We do not understand how anyone could buy a different car. But once we reach the street, the world confuses us with the amount of bad and incomprehensible cars out there, cars that someone liked and fit them like first communion suits. Amongst the most conspicuous of these machines is the Hummer. An expensive, inefficient, overheating vehicle, that is unusable even in the wars for which it was invented. Superimposed to human confines, it must comfort us to know that bad taste is infinite and that others’ poor decisions allow us to triumph over flashy and powerful contenders.

Furthermore, it is because of others’ poor taste and arbitrariness that we all end up finding couples, friends, shortcuts and businesses that validate our existence and good sense. This all came to my mind when a dear colleague of mine published an arrogant book, full of incomprehensible words, with an ostentatious and promising title but pages devoid of any wisdom; full of famous names and bland statements. “This book is a Hummer!” I said surprised. It will sell a few copies here and there, since the title attributes knowledge of far away places and circumstances to the reader. The Hummers number in the thousands, thank God. If there weren’t that many Hummers, we would have to compete with people that are wiser, harder working, more modest. We might even end up without a job. That said, I think the world would be a better place if Hummers and those people that are their soul mates lived long and intense lives, but always outside our circle of influence, and even better if that place is one where they cannot ruin our natural and intellectual habitats.