I applaud your movie, Who Killed the Electric Car. Naturally, the visual image which stuck was of those perfectly useful, technologically advanced EV1s crushed in the Arizona desert. I was especially incensed with the GM spokesman assuring everyone that the components would be recycled. As I drove home, I tried to recall his name so I could send him a real nasty letter ('a hot bundle of paprika' as one of my heroes, General Stilwell, would say).
Soon after, I read Kurt Vonnegut's, A Man Without a Country. That diatribe against contemporary American society, coupled with your movie, urged me on toward Revolution as the only solution to this appalling decay of our Civilization. I lay in bed wondering how many vicious, warmongering plutocrats must be publicly executed to set the necessary salutary example for the others. I settled on 2500 as a sensible number, then fell asleep.
The next day, my Libertarian instinct asserted itself over Vonnegut's Socialism. My thoughts centered on his kind remarks for the Luddites:
"I have been called a Luddite. I welcome it. Do you know what a Luddite is? A person who hates newfangled contraptions... Today, we have contraptions like nuclear submarines armed with Poseidon missiles that have H-bombs in their warheads. And we have contraptions like computers that cheat you out of becoming... Progress has beat the heck out of me. It took away from me what a loom must have been to Ned Ludd two hundred years ago. I mean a typewriter. There is no such thing anywhere."
Over the course of that day, the image of Luddites smashing looms merged with that of those smashed EV1s in Arizona. Suddenly, I realized that Luddites have taken over GM's Board of Directors. (And study the inutility of their decision to destroy the EV1. They hoped to protect their Parts Division, yet, it has since slipped into bankruptcy.)
In 1813, smashing machines was a capital offense. His Majesty's Government tried and executed 17 Luddites. Today, I think it would be fascinating to root out the 17 individuals most responsible for the decision to smash the EV1. Then, conduct a mock trial - with prosecutors and defense counsel. How about that for a sequel to your marvelous documentary?
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