Against Nostalgia

After spending time with various sets of parents and grandparents, I've noticed a definite trend in common attitudes and modes of thinking among these generations. One of the most troubling is in regards to automobiles.

The generation of the Baby Boomers, led of course by their parents, grew up in the post-World War II cookie-cutter landscape of "Leave it to Beaver" America where it was assumed that boys would grow up, go to college, find a wife, and get a job. Girls would grow up, become the wife, and have a bunch of kids. One of the central components to this manicured-lawn style of perfection and stability was the automobile.

These were the days of the giant, boat-like Cadillac. Gas was somewhere around 25 cents a gallon. For really the first time, cars became a major part of the normal American lifestyle: drive-thrus, Route 66, dad's commute to and from work, road trips, and family vacations to Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon all revolved around the family car. It was assumed that the automobile was the way to get around in life, period.

Now, as I spend time with the parents and grandparents of our generation – the people who created, lived, and grew up in this environment – I often notice a sense of nostalgia for those good old days when cars were beautiful, when boys talked about motors, and when the car was the assumed, necessary, and cool thing to have.

I see this nostalgia become evident in the attitude that it's entirely nonsensical, irrational, or silly to attempt to go through life without an automobile. This nostalgia drives those who think that to attempt to go through life with nothing more than a bike (along with public transportation) is somehow naive, idealistic, and childish. Attempts to pass this nostalgia for "Happy Days" America down to our own generation is seen in attitudes that encourage people to idealize, romanticize, and become dependent on the automobile.

This nostalgia is outdated. It should not be passed on to us. It is for a day that no longer exists; that can no longer exist because it cannot sustain itself. While a car-centered lifestyle may have been sufficient for those earlier generations, it has by now entirely run its course. It is no longer feasible or even remotely necessary to rely on cars in our daily lives.

We have the opportunity to change these attitudes, and to keep the nostalgia for America's automobile-driven history where it belongs: in the irrecoverable past. By continuing to use bikes as a primary mode of daily transportation, and by demonstrating this to be a valid lifestyle, we help accomplish this. Hopefully, by the time our generation has become the wise elders of society we can pass on a healthy, sustainable love for the bicycle and by then, the automobile will seem an object more akin to the dinosaurs than an actual part of life.