Safe at Any Speed
by Tibor R. Machan
Doesn't anyone remember Ralph Nader's first bestseller, Unsafe at Any Speed? What was its central thesis? Here it is, just in case you missed it:
A great problem of contemporary life is how to control the power of economic interests which ignore the harmful effects of their applied science and technology. The automobile tragedy is one of the most serious of these man-made assaults on the human body....Our society's obligation to protect the 'body rights' of its citizens with vigorous resolve and ample resources requires the precise, authoritative articulation and front-rank support which is being devoted to civil rights.
In other words, the problem is no SUVs! Yes. Nader basically dissed cars such as GMs Corvair and VW bug because they could be crushed in an accident, leading to the nearly certain death of all who are in them.
OK, fast forward to 2003 when Arianna Huffington and a bunch of other haters of comfort and luxury and, yes, safety, are propounding innumerable theories why SUVs are the curse of the earth. They have gone so far as to pretend that they know what kind of vehicle Jesus Christ would be driving now, never mind that such matters have from time immemorial been shrouded in deep mystery. They know it, despite it all.
Now my question is, Where is Ralph Nader now that his kind of vehicles have finally became America's - and if TIME magazine has it right, slowly becoming Europe's and even the world's - favorites? Why is he not out there proclaiming his must conclusions: Finally our "body rights" are being protected "with vigorous resolve and ample resources," but not by the government - to which Ralph is always eager to turn for help in all of his campaigns to rid America of the boogie man of capitalism. Our "body rights" have gained protection from, you guessed it, Ralph Nader's prime nemesis, corporate America - in particular the automobile industry. And how? By the diligent, vigilant production of SUVs.
Of course, SUVs are mainly safe for those in them. Between a tank and a VW bug, surely the tank is going to win. So those who now complain about the safety of SUVs, such as Keith Bradsher, the author of High and Mighty - with its subtitle of SUVs: The World's Most Dangerous Vehicles, aren't concerned about the safety of those who ride in them but those who might be hit by them. Saint Ralph, however, made his fame by crying tears for those who rode in Corvairs and VW bugs, never mind that their small size meant they didn't do much harm to the people in cars they would hit.
OK, so Saint Ralph cannot be expected to voluntarily confess that he once wrote a book one of the central points of which was that America needs what amounts to SUVs, safe big cars that cannot be crushed in accidents. Saint Ralph must continue to pretend infallibility - that much is understandable.
Yet this same duty does not befall the media, does it? How about a nice NBC-TV - no, a PBS or, better yet, NPR - retrospective on Saint Ralph, with readings from Unsafe at Any Speed? Here is another juicy bit that would show up Saint Ralph to be little more than a conspiracy fanatic:
A principal reason why the automobile has remained the only transportation vehicle to escape being called to meaningful public account is that the public has never been supplied the information nor offered the quality of competition to enable it to make effective demands through the marketplace and through government for a safe, non-polluting and efficient automobile that can be produced economically....The specialists and researchers outside the industry who could have provided the leadership to stimulate this flow of information by and large chose to remain silent, as did government officials.
Yeah, the automobile has never been called to meaningful public account - as if it hadn't been under virtual public assault since its very inception. Did Saint Ralph ever do any historical research on, for example, how Henry Ford's popularization of the Model T was criticized throughout the country?
So, let us continue for a moment on our fantasy about the media doing its job conscientiously. Why no major invitations by Charlie Rose of PBS and CBS-TV fame for Saint Ralph to do some account of himself about his call for bigger and safer cars? Why not calling him on the carpet to explain why back then he attacked the VW bug for being unsafe at any speed, because of its light built, never mind its fuel efficiency? Why doesn't 20/20's Barbara Walters invite Saint Ralph to discuss his failure to defend the SUVs which, by clear implications, would be the perfect answer to his major laments about the designs of such cars as the Corvair and the VW bug?
I am not an expert on the details of what Saint Ralph was claiming about cars in his breakthrough book but as an ordinary citizen who followed the hoopla at the time I swear that if Ralph had an ounce of integrity, he would call for a debate between him and Ms. Huffington and stand up for the SUVs that now do what he demanded back then: protect what he called "the body rights" of our citizens.
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