1957 Plymouth - Decaying Icon of our culture and arrogance.

[LeftHander]

Isn't it ironic that our "50's Sitcom" image of American culture would have a crusty patina of rust on it in 2007?

The people that buried that car must of thought themselves so special that they had to preserve selfish cultural icons of the time, thinking that they would be treasures today. Actually the rust and decay is in keeping of the decay our society has undergone and clearly represents a head shaking "What were we thinking?" moment. Given the condition of the car in it's sarcophagus it is clear that we weren't thinking very well.

The rust covered gas guzzler from the 50's is a great symbol of the huge mistakes and lack of foresight we made by adopting the automobile and consumerism as a basis for sustained growth. We really missed the mark then and we are paying for it now and for the new century as we try to return to local scales of economy, mass-transit and fossil fuel independence.

So when people pine for the return to the "good old days" and family values of the 50's just point out this car and what it represents in our modern world and the economic, energy and climate situation we are in today.

"What were we thinking?" - Indeed.

[blogslut]

1. I got a pic of a better monument

[jobycom]

12. Stanley Marsh 3 and crew!!

Gotta love 'em.

Well, to be fair, Marsh 3 just provided the money, Ant Farm provided the concept.

[blogslut]

14. Yes. Ant Farm

Ten Cadillacs. Ten successive models. Buried at the exact angle of the Great Pyramid. The Stonehenge of Texas. I love it and I hate it.

[bananarepublican]

53. Project Blue Book's version of the Roswell incident of '47! n/t

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

2. They were thinking it would be a good time capsule.

What are you thinking?

[LeftHander]

9. It is a bit abstract...

But what I am getting at is that in the 50's adult generation thought that we had a endless supply of oil and that something "As seen on TV" was better than what was made locally.

People were selfish (and still are) and we can clearly see the damage today (referenced by the rusted hulk). Other people warned but were not listened to then and are still marginalized today. they unwittingly created a time capsule of not only the coveted objects of the day but they also captured the essence of the mistakes made by abandoning our communities for "bigger, faster, cheaper" economies.

That "time capsule" illustrates pretty clearly that we cannot continue to maintain ideas that created the image of the past we have of the immediate post WWII era. They tried to preserve the car thinking someone would drive it around today and it would integrate in 2007. The post cards, the gas, the woman's purse in the glove box all ruined by time, water and failure to plan.

I think the whole process and hoopla that was made in Oklahoma over this "time capsule" really illustrates how we were wrong then and continue to be wrong now. I don't accept the statement "We didn't know any better?" We did. We just didn't see it because the TV wasn't selling it.

[slackmaster]

3. I get a sense of naive optimism

From the fact that they packed 10 gallons of gasoline and 5 quarts of oil with the car in case those items were unavailable in 2007. 10 years later, in the mid '60s, people were still talking about the internal combustion engine being replaced by electric power provided by limitless nuclear sources. They were also talking about personal robot servants, a 30-hour work week, and universal adoption of the Metric System.

There was no conceivable problem that couldn't be solved through science and engineering. But the loss of that naive perception set the stage for the rise of neo-Puritanism and anti-science. In the '50s and '60s it was cool to be smart. Now too many kids grow up in subcultures that value dumbness and ignorance, providing fertile ground for backward ideas like creationism.

[Eugene]

5. The vault was designed to survive a nuclear blast.

Whatever optimism they may have had at the time
was tempered by the fear of nuclear war.

[slackmaster]

7. People were convinced that the US and allies would win a nuclear war

Side note about the shelter:

I grew up near UC San Diego, in a neighborhood full of prominent scientists. I have personally met several people who worked on the Manhattan Project.

Several homes in the area had underground bomb shelters. By the mid '70s, not one of them that I knew of was still being maintained. Most of them were flooded. One summer some friends and I pumped out one of them, managed to get it reasonably dry, and set it up as a photographic darkroom.

[JohnyCanuck]

38. Probably thought we'd all be flying everywhere

in atomic powered flying cars like George Jetson's.

[jobycom]

4. An anti-progress progressive?

No matter what we do to move forward, it will create its own problems in the future, and someone then can look back and describe us all as short-sighted and selfish. The solution is to do like the Quakers, abandon all technology, and hope our kids don't get an infection. Or, we can do the best we can to fix the problems as they occur. The problem isn't what people did in the past, the problem is what they won't do now.

[slackmaster]

8. I think you are thinking of the Amish or conservative Mennonites

Or the Hutterites. The Quakers I know don't abandon technology.

[jobycom]

11. Oo. Sorry, my mistake. I suppose I was refering to the Amish. nt

[Deja Q]

42. Exactly... and that is why I approve of certain forms of offshoring.

American, Chinese, Indian, Romulan, who bloody cares. We need all the scientists we can get.

Except those jobs are leaving America too... :shrug:

I still haven't heard back from that catholic dude who said Americans need to breed more because we need scientists for tomorrow... I'd love to be a scientist but if corporations can say workers cost too much, can't workers say everything else costs too much too? :shrug:

[leveymg]

6. American Dream Machine, '57 Plymouth: "Christine"

[TahitiNut]

20. That's my ex-wife's name .... and very apt.

:evilgrin:

[Blue_Tires]

54. brilliant

John Carpenter kicked so much ass in those days...

i posted the pics in the lounge when they first unearthed it...it is interesting to see what people back then thought the world would be like today

[Joe Fields]

10. I suppose you expected us to have a crystal ball back then?

Peak oil was unheard of back then. We were in an era of postwar prosperity, and Americans were clammoring for items that made their lives easier and fun. Value was placed on design, as much as function, and our consumerism helped to make us the superpower that we became.

It's easy to look back fifty years later and point out mistakes.

[LeftHander]

17. I didn't take a rocket scientist to know that oil supply was fininte...

Even in 1957...I can bet that oil and auto executives of the time were well aware that once oil in a well was gone it was gone. So it was get it while you can. Greed pure and simple. The can't take it with you mentality combined with a society eager to have the trappings of wealth advertised by mass media enabled the problems we have now.

Right now we are making changes to undo the damage but forces from that era are still persistent and influential in our government and politics. We all see that pretty clearly now. The very basis of our economy thus far is FLAWED. Consumption driven by cheap fossil fuel is no longer a workable base for this economy to flourish for another 100 years. The right still wants to reap the personal fortune as best they can while they can.

Why do you think the right plays religion like a cheap fiddle? Because it exerts control over public opinion. Why do you think the right and oil companies have obsfucated global warming into climate change and a public debate? Because it is good for profit and delays the inevitable.

Clearly people here need to open the eyeballs and the brain pan a little wider and let some reason in.

(Next in any thread that questions the choices made by our mass media culture is a personal attack on the OPer and dismissal of the content.)

Abstract thinking is not allowed in our TV fed culture and is attacked with a personal body slam off the top ropes.

[Joe Fields]

28. Too bad you weren't around. You could have fixed all our problems...

[LeftHander]

33. Yeah...bummer eh...nt

[lumberjack_jeff]

13. What will our grandchildren think when they dig up our 2007 icons?

Will they laugh at our naive optimism that the internet would provide egalitarianism? Will they curse us for our foolish belief that we can survive as a permanent service economy? Will they scorn our stupidity for our silly belief in evolution, while plugged into the VR world of American Idol in which they each get to be the contestant?

Compared to the present day, 1957 has much to recommend it. If trends continue, 2007 might be preferrable to 2057. What are we thinking?

[LeftHander]

21. I don't think there will be laughter....

There will be recognition that the internet ushered in a turning point and opened the door to real progress. there will also be a lot of hindsight and wishes that people had prepared their children to better cope with a drastically changing planet and economy.

the internet, by first allowing easy transfer of ideas and commentary, a vast collective pool of thought, a giant "think tank" was been created where ideas are shared and inspires people to act.

No not laughter...here is where the changes began. Here is where people were allowed to think independantly, to share ideas and join together for progress. Here is where we all sorted our the REASONS we have been to war, we continue to spend massive amounts on unneeded expensive military hardware, why we give our money to the rich while allowing our nation's health to fester. Here is where we sort to simple tactics used by our government and disinformation specialists employed by corporations to usurp dissent, reason and the truth that this nation is chronically ill.

There is no permanent service economy that is a lie. We are moving to locally based micro economies and the scale of global distribution and centralized production will come to an end as the oil runs out.

When I say this to people, mouths hang open and they actually still believe that oil will always be easily available and WalMart will be around the corner to offer low low prices because it is our right as Americans.

[triguy46]

26. Pretty sure of yourself...time is a cruel mistress.

[TlalocW]

15. Uh, I think you're being a little harsh

I'm in Tulsa, and yeah, the rusty car is kind of a let-down, but I don't think you can call what this was "perserving selfish cultural icons of the time." As evidenced by the fact that containers of gas and oil were included in the time capsule, they probably thought our transportation would be using something else so in case the future people had never seen it, they included some samples. Same with the car.

TlalocW

[gauguin57]

16. I'm turning 50 this year ... and I pretty much look like that car. And my joints are rusty!

Got a problem with that?

[WolverineDG]

18. What got my interest was

the lady's handbag placed in the glove compartment, which contained everything the "average" woman carried around in her purse in 1957--this included a bottle of tranquilizers. :wtf:

dg

[slackmaster]

19. Yes, I noticed that too

Also the apparant casualness with which they presumably violated federal law by doing something that was expected to result in a controlled substance ending up in the hands of someone other than the person to whom it was prescribed.

[Contrary1]

27. "this included a bottle of tranquilizers"

I am gonna age myself here, but back in the 50's, there was a product on the shelves called Miles Nervine, which was touted to "relieve tense nerves". No prescription required. It was first marketed back in the late 1800's. This may have been what was in the purse.

There was a bottle in our medicine cabinet, probably purchased by my mother in the hopes it would numb her to the antics of me and my brothers.
:woohoo:

[EnviroBat]

32. I want to be "keen"... n/t

[Contrary1]

35. Hey You!!!

Show a little respect!
Fifty years ago, it was cool to be "keen". :rofl:

[EnviroBat]

44. I'm hip to that!

If I were Keen, why that'd be swell, or groovy even! My Dad was keen for a time, but then he got rid of his Harley, and Doddy-o wasn't with it...

[OzarkDem]

37. I saw that, too

Pretty strange world women had to live in back in the 50's. As bad as things are now, I wouldn't trade places with those poor women for anything.

On edit: Miles Labs Nervine was nothing more than antihistimine.

Great commercial, men took it too..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcwG-QJR2dE

[TahitiNut]

22. My mother owned one of those - a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere 2-door with standard 8-cyl engine.

The gasoline mileage was actually quite good for that time ... about 17 mpg all-around suburban driving.

[Raskolnik]

23. What do "local scales of economy" mean to you? n/t

[LeftHander]

24. Local Scales of Economies

I.E. local production and sale of goods and foods.

In the future local micro economies will flourish once again as they did for thousands of years prior to the adoption of fossil fuels to move goods from point A to point B.

Raw materials will be produced (cotton, hemp, leather, wool etc..) once again and crafted into goods sold on a local and regional basis. Economy of scale will shrink to a local level as opposed to our current national and global scales where raw materials are shipped from various and sometimes singular location to another location where they are turned into a final product. That product is then shipped and distributed across the globe to on a every increasingly granular scale until it reaches the consumer.

So rather than the cotton for t-shirt shipped to the Philipines where it is turned into thread that is in turn shipped to China where it is woven into cloth and in turn shipped again to Malaysia where it is constructed into a t-shirt then shipped across the ocean to be distributed to hundreds of WalMarts it is all grown, spun, fabricated and sold locally.

The cotton is grown, and converted into a item with the local region keeping the cycle of producing and consuming in a small geographic area.

That is my best description of local scales of economies.

You see we once operated on that model. With the exception of certain goods (spices and exotic items) that could only be obtained from certain areas. But for the most part we were able to produce and market our goods and services locally.

Global scale of economies will become unworkable in the near future and the collapse of "big box" retail will occur and it no longer is economically viable to ship goods tens of thousands of mile to sell at fractional margins in large volume.

This is inevitable. Already look in your own area and you will see the beginnings local economies of scale many never disappeared but simply have laid dormant so to speak since the 19th century. We will adopt human and local scale and this will also be a factor in the downfall of the "big box retail" consumption model. People will also choose locally crafted items over the Chinese import as the local economies begin to flourish once again. Excess goods produced locally are "exported" as sold exotic imports for a higher profit margin than today.

It is a fascinating concept that we are moving to...a balance of local and imported goods sold by locally owned vendors in a loose network of commerce. Much like the 17th and early 18th centuries. But this time with green technology. In a way we are destined to a renaissance of sorts with a return to quality and craftsmanship over quantity and quarterly profit.

Note: I should also point out that this is not a return to the good old days. Because we will be able to produce goods with more efficiently than we did then and will achieve a higher quality product because of technology. We simply take the best of modern production techniques and scale them for an new efficiency.

Which will be much smaller that what it is today.

[triguy46]

25. Kinda took all the fun out of this....

It also would seem presumptuous to believe that we currently have all the answers. Time can be cruel.

[madokie]

29. I believe friday is when they announce who wins the plymouth

and the saving account, if I remember correctly it was a hundred bucks. I was a third grade student then and I have an entry in the contest for the car, I wish I could remember what I guessed as to what tulsa's population would be but I don't. anyways I think the savings acount will be worth much more than the old car now.

[JCMach1]

30. Dude, it's a car in a hole

[Joe Fields]

34. roflmao!!!

:toast: :thumbsup: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[LeftHander]

36. Wow...that displays an incredible....

...lack of imagination.

Sorry "dude" it is not just a car in a hole.


faaahhhk

[Throd]

39. Sometimes a car in a hole is just a car in a hole.

And a pretty sweet car at that.

What you see as a hideous gas-guzzling abomination, was seen at the time as everybody having a piece of the space-age future. It is no coincidence that the styling from 1957 to 1962 was all about fins, glass domes, and other rocket-themed designs. Man was breaking the bounds of Earth and reaching towards the heavens. If anything, the designs showed a great degree of optimism. Or more cynically, a great way to sell cars.

In 2057 people can pass smug judgement on us with the glorious benefit of hindsight.

[JCMach1]

47. Exactly... I see a good deal of 'humanity' in reaching out to an unknown future

with the banal idiocies of today... It was a different time. This would never get done today.

[LeftHander]

49. What do hummers and SUVs say about us then....?

What would a Hybrid, Mini or Smart Car say about us as well if we pretend to look back from the future?

I think if you play that scenario...one is a good choice the other is a bad choice. One is selfish and the other is not. (Unless of course you are actually hauling lots of goods from the farm to sell in a market...then by all means use a SUV and trailer)

[depakid]

31. The so called "greatest generation will ultimately be remembered

for their wastefulness, poisoning of ecosystems and squandering of massive post war wealth on what they had reason to know at the time was an unsustainable "way of life."

[SammyWinstonJack]

43. Yeah, can't blame the boomers for this wastefulness etc., amazingly enough.

Those some here have tried. :eyes:

[Odin2005]

45. No, the Boomers think they are the greatest thing since Womderbread.

Even though they are more wasteful then their parents, and a bunch of narcissists to boot.

The Greatest Generation lived through the Great Depression and war rationing, So it makes sense that they would pig out afterwards. The Boomers, on the other hand, have absolutely NO excuse for their consumerism.

[raccoon]

48. The Boomers ended the draft. Lucky for you. nt

[Odin2005]

50. I'm actually on of those Duers that support a draft.

[raccoon]

51. That surprises me--I thought you were draft age.

I hated the draft in the '60's and early '70's, but I believe if there had been a draft in 2003, there's no way the American people would have supported the Iraq invasion.

[Odin2005]

52. I wouldn't mind being drafted if it's for a just war, not a BS one like Iraq.

[bedpanartist]

40. Can you say giant toumbstones

You should see this cemetery up the street from me. Buried there are the Wright Brothers, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, and all kinds of really important muckety-mucks with toumbstones the size of small homes.

It's rather ridiculous actually to believe that in the scope of human history, anyone would believe their mostly hairless ape-like selves to be that important.

[Deja Q]

41. Not to mention 'globalization' that is anything but,

and won't be until the cost of living of the world matches the wages that they want to pay out. Somebody needs to hit the 'reset' button and start anew. We've seen how jobs going to people who think are replaced by people in another country who merely read cue cards, mostly because they cost much less. And yet the wages the cue card reading parrots are getting is deemed a godsend, hence the formation of their middle classes.

But I digress.

With advances in energy conservation and more efficient electronics, hybrids, electric cars, and related issues, we're getting there. We just have a ways to go and the transition can be made.

[dysfunctional press]

46. that rusty piece of crap is the PERFECT metaphor for the past 50 years of the u.s.a.

our country, our government, our society- has been decaying from the inside right along with the contents of that time capsule.