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08.01.2006

Teeing Off: Corporate Responsibility (35 comments )

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Courtesy of The Henry Rollins Show

Did you see the run of ads for the Hummer where the pretty lady with the smirk on her face drives alone in this monstrous 17 foot vehicle? Is she a soldier in Iraq fighting the War on Terror? Is this the vehicle she needs to navigate her way through the twists and turns of her everyday life?

Did you see the ad for the newer, smaller Hummer where the short guy walks into the board room where the honchos are having a meeting about what to do about their useless gas draining fucked up urban assault vehicle and suggests they make it smaller? That's like smoking a shorter cigarette. When even the President of the United States now recognizes that America is addicted to oil, can't General Motors show some backbone, exercise some responsibility and just stop making these vehicles and lead the way in creating means of transportation that are more in line with what's happening and where things are going? That oil is in an ever diminishing resource and perhaps it's time to address the situation instead of just starting fake wars in oil rich regions? Isn't it time for the powers that be to show more responsibility and vision rather than just caving in to stock holders and their portfolios? Whenever I see someone driving a Hummer I just think of the lady in the ad and the smirk on her face that says, "Because I can, motherfucker." As tax paying residents, we are held to a fairly high level of accountability. When we can't pay for something, we pay more. We lose our houses, our credit goes spiraling out of control. When we don't deliver at the workplace, we get fired. Bad things can happen to us if we don't tell the truth. When the big guys make bad decisions, we are often left holding the bag. Big corporations make me feel small. Their almighty power makes me feel powerless and their often appalling lack of responsibility accountability makes me think my country is getting sold out by a bunch of paunchy power suited pussies. It sucks. Perhaps accountability has to come from the ground up. If we stop buying these vehicles, the stockholders will howl and the industry will have to change. I have noticed a lot of times if you talk about that kind of civically rooted personal accountability, someone will tell you you're only trying to be PC and to get real. With Unocal almost selling out to China and the President wanting to turn over American border security to the UAE, I think things are real enough. Every company has one basic goal: supply the demand. Maybe it's time to demand something else. So the next time you're driving your Hummer from your driveway to the shopping mall, think about what it takes to fill your gas tank and push all those tons down the street and who's really paying for it and wipe that smirk off your face.

-- Henry Rollins

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Comments ( Page 1 of 2 > » ):

Sweetie, darling...you're preaching to the choir! The average American can't afford to purchase a Hummer, let alone the gas to fuel the beast.

While I agree with you that corporations and our government need to actually DO something about this issue, the fact is they won't until they get voted the hell out of office. We need campaign finance reform, financial limits on how much a candidate can spend for an election, and more transparent reporting of campaign contributions. We need leaders who know how to spell diplomacy, and know how to be diplomatic.

The average American is damn near the breaking point, and change is coming. With our constitutional rights being trampled at every turn, an illegal occupation of Iraq, education and healthcare in serious crises...I believe the people of this country have had enough, and are willing this November to start the process of putting this country back on the path it needs to be on.

By: LuaxanaEvila on August 01, 2006 at 12:06pm
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I think it is time for all of us to sit back and when we see the advertisements for all the things we 'need' so badly like cell phones , antiperspirants, air fresheners, 48 inch flat panel plasma TV's, gas guzzling vehicles, hot tubs etc., etc. just scream 'I'm not buying!!!' Have you ever heard the song 'Welfare Cadillac'? Well somebody needs to write a new song called 'Welfare Cellphone'.

By: jimmiefree on August 01, 2006 at 12:10pm
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Well sure you make some good points.

But the Jones' got a Hummer H3, and if I don't get one too then that means they are better than us. If I just refinance my house out to a 30yr mortgage I may be able to afford the financing on a 3yr lease and have an H3 myself for a year or two before I default on the lease. Sure I cant really afford one but if I can manage to get the credit, even for a little while then that makes me better than all those who cant. Right?

I hope the sarcasm came through. Love your work Henry. Dig your IFC show!

By: Omniscient on August 01, 2006 at 12:12pm
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Good Post. All very true. But, I can't forget that book you wrote called "Get in the VAN" though. Oh well, it was an Econoline, right?

By: Hayduke on August 01, 2006 at 01:47pm
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I feel you Henry. From the denial of global warming to the constant reminder of high gas prices being due to restricted or lack of supply (I notice we never run out though)to the commercial of the smirky bitch to the "war" in Iraq we witness just how far our "dealer" will go to maintain the status quo of the dumb and docile American consumer guzzling gas and oil in record quantities.

I wrote a blog once where I posited that if we wanted to with the amount of cash we are spending in Iraq and on our War machine we could most likely convert every auto manufacturing plant over to hybrid and on top of that give each and every American family their first one free for Christmas.

This would go a long way towards lowering consumption and also protect the sanctity of Christmas too.

Henry, people don't want to be bothered quite frankly. They know the fix is in. I know you saw how they were cackling up on Capitol Hill when they gave a $10 billion or so subsidy to Big Oil this past April or so. I mean talk about insult to injury!

Big Oil has a message for America......In your face!!!!

By: andyboy on August 01, 2006 at 02:24pm
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Henry,

Look at the bright side. All of those smirking idiots are racing themselves right of the cliff. The faster their hummers use up the remaining petrol, the sooner our society will have to deal with a petrol-free environment.

My personal experience, however, has been that I have seen more and more SUVs/pick-ups/gas-guzzlers-extraordinaire appearing in used car lots--and precious few of their miserly, compact, fuel efficient counterparts.

The market is coming around. GM is gasping for breath and Ford is worried. The folks still buying the guzzlers are the last of the head in the sand people who believe that God can fix everything.

By: paddymick on August 01, 2006 at 02:33pm
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"Perhaps accountability has to come from the ground up. If we stop buying these vehicles, the stockholders will howl and the industry will have to change. I have noticed a lot of times if you talk about that kind of civically rooted personal accountability, someone will tell you you're only trying to be PC and to get real. With Unocal almost selling out to China and the President wanting to turn over American border security to the UAE, I think things are real enough. Every company has one basic goal: supply the demand. Maybe it's time to demand something else. So the next time you're driving your Hummer from your driveway to the shopping mall, think about what it takes to fill your gas tank and push all those tons down the street and who's really paying for it and wipe that smirk off your face."

Well said - and absolutely dead-nuts accurate. The Dixiecrats took over this country by first taking over the Republican party and then defeating the Democrats by attacking their strengths - social accountability, compassion, respect, equality, etc. It's time we did the same to the Republicans by using Capitalism as our weapon - exactly as you described.

By: Pragmatist2 on August 01, 2006 at 02:41pm
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People who drive Hummers are self centered egos that could care less about the cost of gas. It's their image they are focused on and the desire to show others that they are on the top of the heap. When I see one, I figure I would not like that person who is driving. They are the type who do not care for their fellow man.

By: Christian on August 01, 2006 at 02:50pm
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I thought I read a month ago where they already decided to discontinue the Hummer, though that is one dead horse I think we should beat.

I have to disagree about Iraq: I'm still not sold on the idea that the cynical view has the most credibility. More likely, people prefer to back away from enemies who are too tenacious (for lack of a better word) - the popularity of the Iraqi war has been directly in proportion to chances of our hope for immediate success being fulfilled, unlike our enemy's basis for assessment. So let's just have enemies with far less tenacity, that will keep the public's need for quick gratification satisfied.

Back to cars: I think the public is ripe for a social movement in this area, as you say, perhaps even one led by someone as likeable as yourself. And I think that's the key: we need a specific leader with the right charisma (again, for lack of a better word), not just a powerful issue without a leader.

By: JonathanDS2U on August 01, 2006 at 02:51pm
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Finaly,a great article about the waste of time-resources piece of shit,the 'hummer'.
I Have always despized hummer owners and that includes any stars like 'ahanold' who brazenly flaunt their filthy excesses commuting in this useless civilian vehicle.
Herez a good idea to rid the american roads of hummers:
since we are at "war',encourage our 'decider-bush' to declare an emergency for army vehicles like the hummer that are being 'IED"d" demolished,in iraq and literally sieze from all-any hummer owners,right in the road-way,and humiliate these assholes for the greedy butt-heads they are.
We would 'thank' them-with out any compensation, for their 'donation' to the 'war on terror' and tell them to go buy an electric car for a replacement.
Then: we would also force all hummer manufacturing companies to also..."donate " any more leftover hummers,now outlawed from american highways,to the 'war' effort.
All hummer owners would be given an 'award' for donating to the war effort,with a tatoo saying "I am a greedy-asshole, fuel guzzling american-former, hummer owner".

By: DAWK on August 01, 2006 at 03:17pm
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Henry,

Right on. How ironic that so many soldiers are fighting in Iraq with poorly armoured Hummers so snotty assholes can drive the damned things here. I ride a bike, and about once a week some fool honks at me for daring to use the road my tax dollars paid for--as if that two second delay in his or her daily gluttony means anything.

Check out this take on the whole situation:
The Oinky Boinky Machine
http://www.prestoncoleman.com/oinkyboinky.htm...

Hello fellow bird, word's out. Shout, scream, dream, fight--right will still prevail. Derail tyranicus mechanicus, and fly away home.

By: dreadneck on August 01, 2006 at 03:21pm
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Too often, our cultural emphasis on freedom and individual rights gets taken to the extreme, becoming "a kind of selfish entitlement that undermines our ability to function as a civil community.

By: Robasolar on August 01, 2006 at 03:48pm
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Am I to assume that you are OK with Suburbans, but Hummers are bad? Your rant is a little narrowly focused. Preaching to the HuffPo choir about not buying Hummers will not change much. There is a reason why Toyota is now larger than GM and also profitable. While SUVs will be around for some time they are becoming less popular. The rising price of gasoline is changing the paradigm. If you want to dramatically reduce the number of SUVs on the road the way to do it is to substantially raise the gas tax. $2-3 per gallon would be enough. At $5 to $6 a gallon large gas guzzling cars will quickly become a thing of the past. You could use the increased tax revenue to fund public transportation and alternate energy research.

By: Mikie on August 01, 2006 at 03:53pm
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People are not driving SUV's as much anymore. They can't afford to drive the gas guzzlers with the price of fuel through the roof. What we need is some hybrid or full electric SUV's. They laws of supply and demand and making the gas guzzling obnoxious SUV's obsolete. The average working stiff can't afford to gas the things up so they are selling 'em off for more fuel efficent cars. I've know some people first hand who had to do this.

By: Pintos77 on August 01, 2006 at 04:03pm
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i agree with parts of the rant, but not with the execution of the plan... you can't ask a company to stop making a vehicle that rakes in money, so obviously what we need to do is find a way to lower the price of Hummer vehicles to the point where everyone owns one, hell, give a tax break for owning one and call it a "true patriot break" or something. the results will be two-fold. first, once everyone has one it will go out of style and the hoilywood elite will start rolling up to premiers in Smart-car limo's or Honda Insight Stretches. also, if everyone owns a Hummer H2, H2 Truck, or H3 oil will run out so fast that car companies and gas companies will be forced to find an alternative if they want to stick around. it's what bureaucracies do best, they fight to survive. i mean, we live in america, we've already had our Industrial Revolution, it shouldn't matter to us that oil is an essential resource when you want to improve a poor country's socio-economic status, right? it's not our problem if they haven't gotten together and started a revolution of their own... it's not like we as a nation are actively keeping them down. hell, we even send a lot of manufacturing jobs over to help them out in any way we can. we even pay them above average wages for their region in many cases... and really, who could complain about that?

Anyway, i think the real goal should be to make a priduction Hummer H1 and actually make it bigger than the military Hummer by at least 3 ft in the wheelbase, and charge under $10,000 for it. that's a Utopia right there.

By: kapper26 on August 01, 2006 at 04:07pm
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The people who market the Hummer know exactly what they're doing. They realize that there is, as Henry Rollins said, a significant "because we can" element out there. People who not only want the biggest intimidatormobile they can find, but would also pay extra to fill up the tank with a mixture of cobra venom, testosterone, and weapons-grade plutonium.

By: MrLion on August 01, 2006 at 04:23pm
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I've seen two of these ads and have found them disturbing ... consumerism I understand but what I found unsettling was how easy it apparently is to play to american personal insecurity. In one ad a woman is intimidated by another mother letting her child go ahead on a slide. Her solution isn't direct confrontation of an obvious invasion of her personal space ... her solution is to buy a hummer that she sees advertised on the side of a passing bus.

The other ad is a man in a supermarket buying tofu ... the guy behind him has a rack of ribs. Solution? Buy a humvee?

I find the comment on the average american consumers fragile ego as disturbing as the usual conspicuous consumption message.

The solution to feeling intimidated? Buy something intimidating. Don't confront actual situations in your life ... buy something ... that'll show em!

That this apparently works ( or they wouldn't have a set of ads with this theme ) is a statement of its own.

By: crystalship on August 01, 2006 at 04:25pm
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Whenever I see someone driving a Hummer, I think about all of the dead and maimed young Americans whose Hummers failed to protect them in Iraq. For that reason, I am more offended by Hummers than I am by other big gas-guzzling SUVs, and very offended by people who drive Hummers. Are they completely oblivious to the provenance of the Hummer, or do they just not care?

By: whatfreshhellisthis on August 01, 2006 at 04:41pm
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Maybe you're to young yet to have any sort of portfolio, but I'll bet that when it's your shares that are being impacted you'll sing a different tune. These giant SUV's are among the most profitable, and GM's bottom line hasn't been too healthy.

There are several reasons for this , but among them is giving concessions in retirement and health care to keep workers happy and win WWII. Also, economocally selfish consumers who think it's cool to buy vehicles from the very countries who we fought WWII against.

If you grow corn, how smart is it to buy your corn from someone else? If we would buy American, then maybe GM wouldn't think it was so important to make the Gas Guzzleing SUV's.

By: onegandolf1 on August 01, 2006 at 05:07pm
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As the freeway blogger says, "Real Soldiers Are Dying In Their Hummers So You Can Play Soldier In Yours". It's despicable. I cringe everytime I see someone driving one of those things and then I curse them for helping escalate the oil crisis.

I was especially appalled at the young fat cat I saw today at lunchtime in his BRAND NEW Hummer, with his Rolex-clad arm hanging out the window holding on to his fancy cigar. If I had been close enough for him to hear me over the engine noise, I might've hurled an insult or two his way. What are these people thinking? What is so wrong with them that they think an urban assault vehicle is the answer?

By: sisterdebmac on August 01, 2006 at 05:11pm
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"When even the President of the United States now recognizes that America is addicted to oil, can't General Motors show some backbone, exercise some responsibility and just stop making these vehicles and lead the way in creating means of transportation that are more in line with what's happening and where things are going?"

Perhaps you don't understand BushSpeak? He thinks it is great that Exxon et al are rolling in the profits from fossil fuels and has stated that he does not believe that global warming is man caused by such things. Check out Big Oil's contributions to the republican party. Bush even gave Big Oil lots of our taxes paid for strategic oil reserves just after the hurricanes last fall so they could gouge consumers at the pumps, profit some more and contribute more to his party.

Big Oil fights any efforts to replace fossil fuels with cleaner renewable energies.

Bush speaks with a forked tongue when it comes to his supporters like Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big War, etc.

By: seriously on August 01, 2006 at 05:12pm
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I usually notice either one of two things about the drivers of BASUVs (big-ass SUVs) in my area:

It's a bleach-blonde soccer mom, usually around 4 1/2 feet tall yakking on a cell phone as she blindly navigates her land-yacht around the mall parking lot,

or...

A 40-something, diminutive looking man with receding hairline and expanding waistline who desperately wants to recapture his glory days and feels that driving a "manly" vehicle will command respect from others. These vehicles are usually have jacked-up suspensions with big, mud slinging tires that have never even seen a gravel road.

I just have to laugh at their lack of self-worth and their aching need to be validated by the rest of the world.

Mostly it's the small, blonde soccer-mom driving alone in a huge truck that cracks me up. You just know it's because their stock-broker-wannabe husbands wouldn't let them to buy a minivan instead.

By: MargeInnoverra on August 01, 2006 at 05:17pm
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"Isn't it time for the powers that be to show more responsibility and vision rather than just caving in to stock holders and their portfolios?"

YES, and LuaxanaEvila who made the first comment on this post hit the nail on the head in three words:

CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM !!!

Without it, we're sitting ducks, even if Dick Cheney isn't around to demonstrate the power of his shotgun blasts.

It's time for "we the people" to tell our Congressmen/women, that the "gig is up"!

We the people have the choice and the power to change this country. But the larger question still remains: Do we have the testicles/ovaries to make that change? Do we have the courage to sit down and write letters and make phone calls to the people we hire to represent us, or will we once again display our fears and ignorance while this country is taken away from us?

By: Gail on August 01, 2006 at 05:32pm
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My little Toyota has a gas tank that holds 13.2 gallons.

A few days ago I filled up with regular and it cost me 30 bucks.

We are in deep,deep trouble.

I'm sorry but I have to laugh at Hummer owners...

When God handed out the brains these folks must have been vacationing on Saturnurnian Moon...they were to " high " on Methane to know anything.

By: eddiestardust on August 01, 2006 at 06:55pm
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Henry, Loved you since Black Flag days. As I was reading the comments the topic of campaign finance reform came up. It reminded me of what happened here in Massachusetts. Here's the link.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Political_Corruption/Fire_Sale.ht...

As you read what happened, know that a conglomerate of well connected buyers scooped up state land where there was once a state hospital with a serious low-ball deal. At the same time, while the "law" languished, other legitimate buyers were shut out by red tape. These were people who were to re-use the property as a hospital, etc... (for Alzheimer's patients to name one group). They were willing to pay a premium price but the land eventually went to those well connected for about ten percent of it's value and is now destined to be another strip mall and retail space destroying more what used to be a farm community. Do we need a fucking Chili's every 8-12 miles? This is just one example in the state of the "Clean" elections boondoggle. Either way, the proceeds were to go to "Clean Elections". It never did. The law was deemed bogus and the money disappeared. It's obvious it was planned from the start and there ain't jack shit anyone can do about it. THIS is the future of "campaign finance reform". Sort of like the old Incumbents out theory. It don't / won't work. May the God of our choice help us!

By: jjlap on August 01, 2006 at 07:07pm
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