Fading Pickup Culture

As I was driving to Loyola yesterday (now a week and a half ago) I looked in my rear view mirror and noticed a Chevy pickup truck closing in on me with an urgency that suggested I better get out of the way or else... I calmly switched on the blinker in my Versa and pulled over allowing the charging rhinoceros of the auto world to barrel on by, thus avoiding miles of unending tailing. I then began to think about pickup trucks and how I am seeing less F-150s, Tundras and Silverados and more Focuses, Yarises and Aveos. Could it be true that just like the raging T-Rex found itself stumbling towards extinction so too the mighty pickup truck must fall?

In my mind the pickup truck is a status symbol and a cultural statement. By owning a pickup you prove to others that you are a "real" man and that you don't mess around (of course I am generalizing and stereotyping). It means instant acceptance to the world of the blue collar middle class. A pickup truck proves to others that you are a "can do" person and that you won't back down. It really does personify part of the North American cultural value system. We are hardworking, tough, and mean business. Sadly, at least in part, in a world ever increasingly technological there seems to be fewer and fewer places for the pickup trucks and the culture it represents.

While our parents were able to support a family as tradesmen and laborers, those days are quickly fading. To belong to the middle class we now require education and skills training. No longer are you able to arrive merely through hardwork and good values. As part of the middle class we are forced to constantly keep improving our skills and education to stay one step ahead of the person who is looking to take our place. While I am only partly fond of the pickup culture, I am sad to see it leaving. I appreciate those who work hard and have good values. They help society run effeciently and generally provide ethical grounding. I believe in equality and desire for anyone to be able to succeed, despite their level of education. I certainly hope that the determination and hard work exemplified by the pick up culture remain in the fabric of our society.

Yet, part of me is glad to see the pickup culture fade. With an increasingly smaller world and global immigration there is little room for a culture that primarily looks out for number one. The pick up culture believes that it is the best, the way the world should be. As we have seen with terrorism and oppresion in the past decades cultures that uphold a view that their way is the only way to be tend to be dangerous. There is much fear and hatred in a culture that views itself as the epitome of civilization, whether it be the elites, the middle class or the poor. The pick up culture has little room for tolerance, you either speed up or get out of the way. Soon the time will come when they will have to accept the Focuses and the Cobalts, then also the Versas and the Yarises. The line between the middle class and the poor is blurring. No longer are hard work and good values able to grant you a life of dignity and relevant prosperity. The passage to a middle class life is predicated on your education, your race and the status of your parents. The values personified by the pick up culture are no longer a guarantee for entrance into the middle class. In todays world those who understand other cultures and the global society, as well as those trained in technology have a better chance of fighting their way into the middle class.

So, good bye gas guzzling behemoths. We will see less and less of you, but we must evolve. The world no longer has the resources to support you, and your cultural characteristics, which helped propel you into the middle class, are becoming more and more outdated and irrelevent in an increasingly global and crowded world.