“Advertisers regularly con us into believing that we genuinely need one luxury after another. We are convinced that we must keep up with or even go one better than our neighbors. So we buy another dress, sports jacket or sports car and thereby force up the standard of living. The ever more affluent standard of living is the god of twentieth century North America and the adman is its prophet.” NeedsBelieveAmericaForceSportsCenturyCarStandardsDressesConvincedNeighborLuxuryProphetConsumerismTwentieth CenturyJacketsOverconsumptionNorth AmericaStandards Of LivingAffluentAdvertisersSports Cars Book:Rich Christians in an age of hunger: a Biblical study Source: Rich Christians in an age of hunger: a Biblical study
“We, all of us in the First World, have participated in something of a binge, a half century of unbelievable prosperity and ease. We may have had some intuition that it was a binge and the earth couldn't support it, but aside from the easy things (biodegradable detergent, slightly smaller cars) we didn't do much. We didn't turn our lives around to prevent it. Our sadness is almost an aesthetic response - appropriate because we have marred a great, mad, profligate work of art, taken a hammer to the most perfectly proportioned of sculptures.” WorldFirstsMayArtEarthTurnsEasyHalfSupportTakenOur LivesSadnessCenturyCarMadResponseProsperityIntuitionEaseAppropriateWorks Of ArtAestheticConsumerismUnbelievableSculptureHammersOverconsumptionEasy ThingsBingeBiodegradable Author:Bill McKibben
“Main Street, U.S.A. is America at the turn of the century--the crossroads of an era. The gas lamps and the electric lamp--the horse-drawn car and auto car. Main Street is everyone's hometown- the heart line of America.” HeartAmericaTurnsLinesStreetsCenturyCarHorseErasGasElectricLampsHometownCrossroadsMain Street Author:Walt Disney
“There was a day when you could identify a NASCAR Ford, Chevrolet, or Dodge and they actually looked like "stock cars." Now they are pod machines, slick on the outside but still powered by the same Neanderthal carbureted pushrod V-8s that have been under their hoods for half a century. If this is real auto racing, then the WWF ought to be part of the Olympics.” IfsHas BeensStillsRealHalfCenturyCarOughtMachinesRacingOlympicsHoodSlickDodgeNascarHalf A CenturyAuto RacingNeanderthalsWwfChevrolet Author:Brock Yates
“Back in the twentieth century, we thought that robots would have taken over by this time, and, in a way, they have. But robots as a race have proved disappointing. Instead of getting to boss around underlings made of steel and plastic with circuitry and blinking lights and tank treads, like Rosie the maid on The Jetsons, we humans have outfitted ourselves with robotic external organs. Our iPods dictate what we listen to next, gadgets in our cars tell us which way to go, and smartphones finish our sentences for us. We have become our own robots.” WayHumansMadeLightNextRaceTakenCenturyCarSentencesBossOrgansPlasticSteelRobotsTwentieth CenturyTanksDisappointingMaidsRoboticsIpodsGadgetsSmartphonesRosieWhich Way To Go Author:Mary Norris
“By the end of the third decade of this century, all of American life - politics, international relations, our homes, our jobs, our industries, the kind of cars we drive - will be forever transformed by the climate and energy challenge.” KindEndsHomeJobsEnergyChallengesForeverCenturyCarIndustryThirdsRelationClimateClimate ChangeInternationalDecadesTransformedInternational RelationsAmerican Life Author:Joseph J. Romm
“The speeding toy cars produce in the viewer the stress of living in a dynamic, active and bustling 21st-century city.” CitiesCenturyCarProduceStressActiveToys21st CenturyViewersSpeeding Author:Chris Burden
“Cities offer us powerful leverage on our most stubborn, wasteful practices. Long commutes in our cars, big power bills from our energy-hogging buildings, shopping trips to buy stuff that'll spend a few short months in our homes and long centuries in our landfills.” LongHomeBigsEnergyStuffPowerfulCitiesPracticeCenturyCarBuildingMonthsOffersBillsShoppingStubbornLandfills Author:Alex Steffen
“Religion is a practical discipline and in the 17th century in the West, we turned it onto a head trip. But it's like dancing, or swimming, or driving, which you can't learn by texts. You have to get into the car and learn how to manipulate the vehicle.” CenturyCarDisciplineDancingWestDrivingPracticalsSwimmingVehicleManipulate17th Century Author:Karen Armstrong
“I think that most technology is positive in the short term, and negative in the long term. I wonder, if somebody looked back at the 20th and 21st centuries a thousand years from now, what their perception of the car would be. Or of television. I wonder if over time, they'll be seen as this thing that drove the culture, but ultimately had more downside than upside.” IfsThinkingYearsLongWould BeCultureTermWonderTechnologyCenturyCarTelevisionThousandPerceptionNegativeLong TermThousand Years21st CenturyShort Term Author:Chuck Klosterman
“I like to take folks back to the turn of the century when people said 'gas cars can never replace horses because you can feed horses at your house, you get along with them, they're nice.'” PeopleSaidTurnsHouseNiceCenturyCarHorseFolksGas Author:Chris Paine
“I really liked the design aesthetic of the mid-century modern for furniture and the early '60s stuff for the clothes. But then, personally, I'm a huge fan of 1970s muscle cars. Cell phones is just a laziness thing because it's so much easier to have somebody have a cell phone than have to go to a phone booth. So we're sort of, I guess, cherry-picking the best and easiest from several decades.” StuffFansModernCenturyCarDesignHugeEasierClothesPhonesDecadesCellsMusclesAestheticLazinessFurnitureCell PhoneCherriesPhone BoothMuscle Car Author:Adam Reed