Being Taken For A Ride

Motoring Away - Driving Off A Cliff

This new year already feels like its running off the road, as what feels like some of the last remaining parameters of justice and accountability get shot in the head in the front seat of a car in Minneapolis.

Cars. They loom large in our culture, a fact that drives more than people around, but drives a major portion of the foreign policy of the U.S. and its fanatical defense of the petrodollar.

And cars loom large in Audiobahn, an episode that was probably the very first one conceived when work on the It's All Happening series began in earnest all those years ago.

It prominently features segments from the groundbreaking documentary film “Taken For A Ride” by acclaimed filmmaker Jim Klein, one that delves into the deeply corrupting actions of auto manufacturers and oil companies to dismantle public transportation in the country in order to establish a mass market for oil and automobiles (and a few other benefiting industries).

When sharing the idea with Jim all those years ago I was quite happy at his rather enthusiastic support of it. Meant a lot to me that he could see how this was a new way of getting the story out there, of spreading awareness in ways that were fairly unconventional but potentially useful and effective.

A lot has happened since the ideas for this episode first came together, never mind since when the main works featured were first created (Klein’s film in the 90’s, the Kraftwerk classic in the 70’s). Guess there’s a certain poetry to it being simultaneously both the newest and oldest episode in the IAH catalog. Kinda like that aforementioned U.S. policy such as attacking Venezuela, being both the newest vulgar incarnation of one of the oldest U.S. policy doctrines.

And a lot is continuing to happen, at an increasingly rapid clip, as our oligarch-run late stage empire continues to degenerate into its own footprint. It’s aaaaalll happening, alright.

Here’s to amplifying more of that inspiration now and in the days ahead.