Some think what's good for General Motors' Hummer is good for the U.S.A. Do you?
Consumerism and buying preferences are a complex mix of rational and less-than-rational decision-making. Concepts of self-identity certainly play an important role. How else can you explain the ubiquity of tee shirts pronouncing a company or university logo or even some iconic symbol or quirky phrase?
But it doesn't stop with identity; social scientists have found that consumer choices are also influenced by moral preferences. That morality plays a role in buying decisions is not surprising; in fact it seems appropriate. What is surprising is that these moral considerations can take on mythic proportions whereby a consumer's purchase of a product becomes conflated with the defense of "sacrosanct virtues and ideals from the transgressive actions of an immoral adversary," as a recent paper published in the Journal of Consumer Research (JCR) puts it.
The Hummer was introduced to the market in 1990 (by mail order only at the start), as a smaller version of the HUMVEE, the hero vehicle of America's military victory in Operation Desert Storm. Since then, the Hummer has become iconic in the debate between right and left, environmentalists and libertarians, and so forth.
Yes, as you might suspect, the conflict is a part of the larger culture wars that have embroiled our country in recent decades. But according to that JCR paper, by Marius K. Luedicke of the University of Innsbruck and colleagues, there is a strangely, at least in my opinion, jingoistic twist to the Hummer conflict.
The moral themes cited by those who oppose the Hummer are not surprising -- at their heart is an opposition to what is perceived as an overly consumerist and materialistic society. According to the authors:
Hummer condemnations reproduced many of the defining themes and motifs that have historically characterized the aforementioned ... [stance] ... against consumerism and most particularly its demonization of conspicuous consumption as a sphere of profligate waste that posed immanent threats to the common good.
Is there an anti-American theme to this Hummer criticism? I sense an implicit critique of the American "way-of-life," but it's hardly, in my opinion, anti-American. No more anti-American than those who rail against, for example, the permissiveness of our society or the fact that men wear their baseball caps indoors. (In fact, the creators of the anti-Hummer site fuh2.com cite some arguably pro-American rationales for their distaste of the vehicle: it's a "poseur" vehicle, a "gas guzzler" that is exempt from fuel-efficiency standards, a "polluter," "death machine" and "tax loophole.")
But for the defenders of the Hummer-life, the issue is a question of patriotism:
Self-proclaimed Hummer owners ... assail [opponents of Hummers] for being un-American, terrorist sympathizers, tree-hugging socialists, and a host of other epithets, which challenged Hummer critics' commitment to true American values.
According to the authors, Hummer owners see themselves as a beleaguered group of patriots trying to protect the American way in a time of clear danger.
Whereas critics of the Hummer often assume that its owners are seeking security in a literal fashion (e.g., this big, tank-like vehicle makes me feel safe), ... Susan, like many of the Hummer enthusiasts we interviewed, employs strength in a far different, Jeffersonian sense: the Hummer reflects the strength of a people united by the values of American exceptionalism. In this framing, prototypic Hummer critics (environmentalists and intellectual elitists) are portrayed as being hypocritical and as subtly undermining the unity that enables the nation to stand strong against external threats. ... Hummer owners ... cast themselves in the role of heroic protagonists who are standing up to their critics' un-American (and morally suspect) activities.
Of course the debates over climate change and Hummer ownership have merged. Given the Hummer's appalling gas mileage, it is not at all surprising that those concerned about climate change would find fault with it. It would also not be surprising if Hummer owners tended to be climate skeptics. What I had not expected to find is that Hummer owners would conflate their association of Hummers and patriotism and lack of concern about climate change to conclude that actions to address climate change were un-American. The authors found that:
Hummer enthusiasts ... condemned drivers of the hybrid Toyota Prius, global warming activists, and Al Gore's (2006) iconic documentary An Inconvenient Truth.
Patriotism in a country like ours is to be expected and appreciated. Preference for a given type of car is also the norm. Decisions to "buy American" when purchasing a car are understandable. But conflating a specific type of car and patriotic duty makes no sense to me.
To what extent does a company, in this case General Motors, foster an association in peoples' consciousness between its product and patriotism? American automobile manufacturers, we often hear, don't make fuel-efficient cars simply because American consumers don't want them. But to what extent is it true that American consumers don't want fuel-efficient cars because American car makers convince them that gas guzzlers are "American" or manly or sexy? Is it just a coincidence that many American consumers choose to the buy the types of cars that give automobile manufacturers their largest profit margin?
And for those Hummer owners: Individualism? Fine. Freedom of choice? OK. But how is it patriotic to encourage our sending more than $350 billion to foreign countries a year, many of them hostile to our way of life, to import the oil that powers your gas guzzlers?
Originally posted at www.thegreengrok.com.
Follow Bill Chameides on Twitter: www.twitter.com/theGreenGrok
HUMMER | Luxury SUVs, Trucks, & SUTs
Conservative Ideals Drive Hummer Ownership | Autopia | Wired.com
When you drive these vehicles, you're not just traveling from place to place, you're imploring others to mind their own business and take care of themselves, or to do their part to take care of each other.
The Hummer isn't the most environmentally harmful car in the world, nor is Prius the least. People buy them to identify themselves to the world: I am resilient individual. I am a responsible citizen.
If you want to destroy the environment, buy a Lamborghini Murcielago or, if you don't have the money, an Audi R8, Nissan GT-R, or Mazda RX-8. The fuel economy is very nearly as poor as the Hummer, but you only get 2 seats and barely any cargo capacity.
If you want to save the environment, buy a used VW Golf TDI.
Now if that isn't funny (or is it pathetic?), I don't know what is.
I don't mean that it is funny or anything that the author missed this (we all can over look things, no big deal), but rather that it is funny that the brains of these deluded "patriots" ought to explode at the cognitive dissonance of yet another set of inconvenient facts.
http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/thegreengrok/thebeachboysredux/?searchterm=None
Do you really want to trample on a kid's dream? Or would you let me motor in peace while Ford creates a CAFE cushion with Fiestas and electric Foci?
What about the fact that I don't fly on planes, I work out of my home, I don't have boats or ATVs. I use less gas than most people, yet, I get insulted, my vehicle gets keyed and people throw stuff on it. $5,000 worth of damage later what has been accomplished? The damage to the vehicle has caused more waste and environmental issues because I have to pay to have things fixed.. This uses more water, there are toxins from paints and glues etc. I am out money I could be using to pay an additional employee.
How about the report that came out a few months back that the Hummer isn't even in the top ten gas guzzlers? Did you know there are Mercedes that use more gas than my vehicle? Why not go insult the Mercedes owners?
Why do I have to justify myself to you or to anyone else? Do I yell at people for owning a Honda? Do I yell at minivan drivers that drive all over the country and use tons of gas? Do you or is it just Hummer owners? What I want to drive is my choice. We need better gas options for everyone, but make that happen without insulting everyone and dividing us all as a country.
So it is you fault (by supporting it) for hard working people to have less money in their pockets.
or shall we say less:
food on the table
medicine for our children
college tuition for their kids
books at home for reading and learning
time with the family (for they have to work longer hrs just to stay even)
I congratulate you for your honesty on this subject.
Prof. Chameides isn't yelling at you. He hasn't said he hates you. Perhaps he is trying to understand the phenomenon of a minority of people who vehemently defend driving the civilian version of what was designed to be a large military vehicle. If it is true, as he asserts, that Hummer ownership goes along with a tendency to deny global warming, then that is worth commenting upon. However, California's governor, who is almost singlehandedly responsible for the commercialisation of the private version of the vehicle, has switched to biofuel for his three Hummers, and does not deny global warming. Also, a few companies have experimented with switching the vehicle to all electric mode. That is an interesting idea, although to my way of thinking one does not need such a large chunk of metal as a base platform for an EV.
If you want to drive a Hummer, it is legal to do so. That you do not drive it much, so that you use less gas than most people, makes some sense.