The World is Around You, but You are in Your Car is a work of fiction wrapped around an essay that describes an American problem-the relentless pursuit of the perfect life-and its negative consequences that adversely affect progress and behavior toward the rest of the world. "I want it, and I want it now," with its shortage of self-restraint, has been taken to levels not reached before, and the insidious ramifications are eye-opening: the easy disposability of people or principles if these should obstruct the path to the perfect life, the mental depression from the strains of struggling to keep up with neighbors, or the isolation from reality as people become more and more comfortable in their plush living rooms and cars. The tale brings history's great philosophers together to sound an alarm and talk about ways to slow the relentless pursuit. They have already debated the relevant issues with each other; here in this story, their role is only to inform us of their conclusions. They discuss the external and internal controls that restrain the pursuit, agreeing that internal control, involving individual self-regulation, is more effective and desired than external control, primarily because of its greater conduciveness to freedom, the crown jewel of this civilization.

The World is Around You, but You are in Your Car

By William M. Trently

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2009 William M. Trently
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4401-4284-0

Contents

PREFACE.........................................................xiINTRODUCTION....................................................xiiiPART ONE THE SHORT HISTORY OF THE U.S...........................1PART TWO PHILOSOPHERS...........................................9PART THREE INTERVIEW WITH AN ALERT AMERICAN.....................17PART FOUR NEW ACQUAINTANCES DOWNTOWN............................37PART FIVE DIALOGUES.............................................49PART SIX BICYCLING TO THE OCEAN.................................79PART SEVEN COFFEEHOUSE..........................................89PART EIGHT IN CONCERT...........................................121

Chapter One

PART ONE THE SHORT HISTORY OF THE U.S.

September 11, 3000 CE

Student sitting on campus bench reads newly-published (circa June 3000), critically-acclaimed college textbook.

Student looks up, waves to approaching second student.

Second student: "What are you reading?"

"The Short History of the United States-for my sociology class."

"Cool."

Excerpt is graciously reprinted below, with permission, making up the remainder of this first chapter.

* * *

People everywhere, from the beginning of human time, pursued wants. They wanted food, water, and shelter. They wanted things not absolutely required for the most fundamental levels of survival, such as a recreational boat, home decoration, or CD player. They wanted intangibles like freedom, comfort, safety, and happiness.

The pursuit of wants, as always, meant different things to different people based on different personal desires. What was desired, why it was desired, when and how much was desired, and how intensely it was desired-all varied among people. One person liked ska while another preferred rock. An ascetic and a hedonist held very different views on what would be regarded as comfort. Another individual was happiest when reading a book on the beach, while someone else only when surfing the waves at the same beach. One girl wanted earnestly and enthusiastically to study for several hours a day, while a second girl could never sustain study beyond thirty minutes. One health-conscious person wanted to eat a maximum of one sweet each day as his only dessert. A second person craved at least five donuts, five cookies, and five candy bars daily. If it was discovered there were no donuts left in the pantry, the first person would not bother to make a special trip to the store to replenish the supply. The second person would undertake an emergency expedition.

The pursuit of wants also, as always, meant different things to different people based on limitations. The amount of money required to buy something could be limiting. Certain products might not be available everywhere. The amount of effort required to get something could be regarded by a minimally-motivated person as excessive, thus restricting its acquisition. People were limited by their mental and physical abilities-a consistent "D" student could not be valedictorian; a person with a broken leg could not compete in a marathon race.

People everywhere in the world, as always, wanted. There was a cartoon sketch of the generic human with an arm outstretched, hand gripping an object he desired, pointing with his other hand in another direction at some other object he also sought to obtain.

People living in the United States of America increasingly tended to pursue relatively more wants than people living elsewhere. "Americans," as they were called, had a great degree of personal freedom and abundance of resources, among other factors, that promoted this tendency. Those conditions provided a fertile ground from which individuals could desire and actually acquire more. The cartoon sketch was modified to portray the American as a human with ten arms outstretched from one body, each hand holding a yearned-for object or pointing to one.

The culture of freedom in the United States allowed its inhabitants the opportunities to achieve personal goals and develop their own unique abilities to the fullest. The high degree of freedom was perhaps, arguably, the most significant factor influencing and provoking the greater wants. Having liberty to speak, assemble, create, inaugurate a club or charitable organization, pursue vacations, or start a new business opened doors to needs for additional materials and benefits. People from places that did not offer such freedom could only dream of those possibilities, while Americans could take their wishes a step further.

The United States, experiencing such a wealth of freedom, represented an experiment that might help determine for the world how much freedom could be safely bestowed upon humans before the privilege was abused, becoming counterproductive. Numerous scholars dubbed this "the freedom experiment."

Although there were many people who did not admire the ideas and actions of the Americans, there were many throughout the world who did. Many felt that a free society like the one in the United States, although imperfect, offered the greatest hope for a better future. People everywhere watched the experiment and, some of them, at times, adopted certain ideas from the Americans to use in their own unique homelands on the planet.

People saw that, in the United States, the greater wants led to much progress. As more individuals strived harder to get things, higher levels of progress resulted. Progress was the advancement of American society toward the status of being "better," which meant such conditions as being safer, more comfortable, healthier, more efficient and happier. It was the forging ahead to an elevated, more advanced stage.

Many inventions resulted, such as the television, the airplane, and the automobile. An abundance of medical advances arose. Astronauts landed on the moon. The middle class prospered. Impressive strides forward were made in the realm of the arts. The civilization made it easier for handicapped persons to get around and participate more fully in society. Social, cultural, and political gains were observed. When people were allowed more freedom to pursue their wants, as they were in the United States, much positive progress resulted.

In time, however, there emerged a deep-seated negative development that infiltrated the American character. By about the year 2000, the pursuit of wants gradually evolved into what was eventually called by some individuals a "relentless pursuit of the perfect life," a derogatory description.

The word "relentless" meant showing or promising no abatement of severity or intensity. It portrayed conditions that were unrelenting, tending not to let up, slacken, soften, mollify, or yield. It was good to be relentless in the sense of not giving up, in being tenacious in seeking the attainment of goals, but it was not good when that seeking began to detract from progress and adversely affect people.

The word, "relentless," as used to describe the devolution stated above, connoted an insatiable selfishness where Americans were perceived as doing whatever it took to get what they wanted, regardless of harm rendered upon others. The pursuit of wants was unfettered, often at the unfair expense of other people who played by the rules and happened to be in the way.

Certainly, people all over the world, as always throughout history,...