The End of Our Love Affair with Cars – WSJ.com

Cars became appliances. Or worse. Nobody’s ticked off at the dryer or the dishwasher, much less the fridge. We recognize these as labor-saving devices. The car, on the other hand, seems to create labor. We hold the car responsible for all the dreary errands to which it needs to be steered

For boomers and their parents, the fundamental equation of state was CARS = FREEDOM. Since, alas for the fortunes of what used to be known as The Big Three, cars have become about everything but freedom. They are now responsible for saving the atmospheric models, entertaining the lobotomized monkeys in the back seats on their way to the next programmed activity of the totalitarian state of modern childhood, protecting each other from the inevitable consequences of trying to answer the cell in the middle of texting with one hand and drinking coffee with another while keeping an eye on the GPS and listening to talk radio and, generally, everything else save fun.