Communal Property

A simple lesson via James Lileks:

At least we have closure on the Element problem. They finally figured out why the heater kicks out when I go through a car wash. It’s a design flaw that affects all Hondas. All of them. Each and every one. If the blower’s open, it shorts the heating element.

Pause.

“Well, that’s stupid,” I told the service guy.

“We were all pretty surprised,” he said. “I finally called Honda and they weren’t surprised, they said they get calls about this all the time.”

I imagine they do.

In the meantime I’ve been driving a Sportage, which has nice pickup but feels as substantial as a car made entirely of cellophane. I drove it to the auto show to shoot a video, and parked in a ramp, heedless of door-dingers. A wonderful lesson on the psychology of communual property, that. It's not that I dinged anyone else's door, but I simply worried less.

When everyone worries a little less, which everyone does when it comes to things that don't belong to them, apathy ensues. And then things end up looking like, well, like public housing.