It's on days like these.....

[Brandane]

Unlike brandane, your choices are pretty unconstrained.

Finally! .
Maybe, just maybe, someone from the other side has sort of admitted that there may be times when there is a need for a car a car is the most sensible and practical "choice". It all depends on where you live, the job you do, and other personal circumstances. So can you all try and stop enforcing your misguided beliefs on others (who form the vast majority of the non city dwelling population)?

 

[srw]

Finally! .
Maybe, just maybe, someone from the other side has sort of admitted that there may be times when a car is the most sensible and practical choice.

I don't suppose you'd like to find a place where anyone has said anything different? Good luck - you'll have a very long hunt. And then perhaps you can go on to reflect on McShroom's wise words. And finally have a think about what the situation will be like in a couple of years time when your hours have been cut because of the continuing economic gloom and your choice will be between keeping your car and keeping your house warm.

 

[theclaud]

Finally! .
Maybe, just maybe, someone from the other side has sort of admitted that there may be times when there is a need for a car a car is the most sensible and practical "choice". It all depends on where you live, the job you do, and other personal circumstances. So can you all try and stop enforcing your misguided beliefs on others (who form the vast majority of the non city dwelling population)?

Meanwhile, back on page 5:

If I were to buy a car in order to get a job, that would be a choice. It might be an understandable choice, but it's a choice nonetheless..

No danger of you responding to what anyone actually says, instead of to the voices in your head, I suppose?

 

[Boris Bajic]

Well, if you could bring yourself to agree that the proportion of genuine need hidden within the huge body of choice dressed up as need is rather small, we could possibly bring this to a conclusion. Bianchi1's frankly ludicrous trolling aside that is.

I find Brandane's posts in this thread (that he started) fairly reasonable. If he feels a need, then there is a case (as Lear might have it) not to reason that need.

As a child in a fairly godless family, I frequently visited the monastic retreat of my father's wartime chaplain. The brothers there lived without possessions, without spouses or children, drank no alcohol and pretty much devoted their lives to prayer and good works. Their perception of need was (I would imagine) vastly different to those of the majority of posters on these pages. I found it a charming and slightly dotty lifestyle, but I liked the cakes they made.

Despite their chosen livestyles of poverty, chastity and obedience, these brothers did not ram the superiority of their choices down anyone's throat or try to open a spurious debate about the difference between need and choice. They just did their chanting and praying and weaving and let others do their driving and share-dealing and drinking and factory work.

There may be town-dwelling members of these pages who feel the need of things (imported fruit, tumble driers, new-world wines) for which I feel no need. One may argue between choice and perceived need, but this can sometimes descend into a spat of 'I prefer my lifestyle and will condemn or question the language with which you describe yours'.

When still working in an office, I cycled most days between March and November (return journey 46 miles). As Brandane says in the OP, if the wind, rain or cold just looked horrid I drove. Sometimes I regretted the choice within moments of leaving the drive, but I did it again and again.

We (my family) have cars. We feel the need for them. We have open fires, we grow our own fruit (and some salads and vegetables), we make our own music... but we feel the need for cars. I think that my children have all benefitted hugely in their formative years by having access to personal transport in a (beautiful) part of the world where few public-transport options exist. In that sense, I have felt (and continue to feel) the need for a car (or three).

 

[Brandane]

Meanwhile, back on page 5:
No danger of you responding to what anyone actually says, instead of to the voices in your head, I suppose?

So I might have failed to recall one post which was a reply to someone elses post. No need to get personal though. If you want to start that game, just let me know.......

NB... Well written reply above from Boris. Common sense at its best.

 

[Brandane]

I don't suppose you'd like to find a place where anyone has said anything different? Good luck - you'll have a very long hunt. And then perhaps you can go on to reflect on McShroom's wise words. And finally have a think about what the situation will be like in a couple of years time when your hours have been cut because of the continuing economic gloom and your choice will be between keeping your car and keeping your house warm.

Did I forget to tell you? I now work just 27 hours per week, locally, because the cost of fuel has now made it uneconomical for me to travel on my previous 25 mile each way commute. As I have previously posted, the car is staying until I can no longer afford it, whenever that may be. Luckily I receive a pension from my previous life, so work is much like the car - I could get by without it, but I make my own "choices" to enhance my quality of life.

 

[srw]

Lose the inverted commas, think (with McShroom's help) about the impact of your choices on your neighbours and children and you're there. Well done.

 

[Brandane]

Lose the inverted commas, think (with McShroom's help) about the impact of your choices on your neighbours and children and you're there. Well done.

Lose the patronising victory statement. IF the car has to go, it will be purely for reasons of economics, and not as a result of some sort of social conscience.

 

[kerndog]

Lose the patronising victory statement. IF the car has to go, it will be purely for reasons of economics, and not as a result of some sort of social conscience.

glad to see your still holding your own brandane - theres nothing worse than a smug **** who doesn't even realise he's a smug ****

 

[srw]

Lose the patronising victory statement. IF the car has to go, it will be purely for reasons of economics, and not as a result of some sort of social conscience.

Who's asking you to ditch the car? It's entirely in your own mind.

 

[kerndog]

A choice.

You both could have walked. A choice.

A bloody ridiculous, unrealistic choice. do you have any idea how unrealistic that suggestion is?

srw you dont have children do you?

30 mile walk with a kid and a game of football in between. what a joke.

 

[theclaud]

So I might have failed to recall one post which was a reply to someone elses post. No need to get personal though. If you want to start that game, just let me know.......

NB... Well written reply above from Boris. Common sense at its best.

You're entirely missing the point, which is that you are battling an imaginary foe; arguing with a voice that you have projected onto others. And Boris's post is the usual loquacious, self-cebtred, irrelevant mish-mash of anecdote, disingenuousness, equivocation and passive aggression. So, yes - that is usually roughly what people seem to mean by "common sense".

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Lose the patronising victory statement. IF the car has to go, it will be purely for reasons of economics, and not as a result of some sort of social conscience.

Watch out: money spent in bikes and accessories can soon mount up to the price of a small car
Economics: we cannae win!

 

[srw]

A bloody ridiculous, unrealistic choice. do you have any idea how unrealistic that suggestion is?

srw you dont have children do you?

30 mile walk with a kid and a game of football in between. what a joke.

Errrrrmmmm.....

No. Try reading the right post. It's 2 miles. A 40 minute walk each way.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Sad?

Nay, not really
Couldn't find a "dismay" smiley.