Moving into the modern age…
gutthans
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I want to take a moment to comment on a post response in my thread on Flat-tappet oil ratings…(see title above). ‘New’ is not necessarily better. ‘Improved’ often isn’t. ‘Advanced’ is often simply different. Modern…well, there’s a whole story behind that.
About 20 years ago, the U.S. Congress was actually debating a law that would make it illegal to operate a motor vehicle on the highways that was older than 10 years. The public logic was safety and pollution. Fortunately, thanks to SEMA and others, that never happened. That was merely one of many continued attempts by powerful corporations to control the flow of money to them by eliminating our ability to work on, repair, and keep our own, paid-off vehicles.
I’m all for progress, especially if it benefits me, my family, or the world at large…but too often we get marketed into accepting things as ‘good’ with no real understanding of WTF just happened. Do you think that the complexity of modern vehicles is simple technological progress? Do you think the OBDI and II exist for you?
Sure, there are some real benefits to adopting new practices and designs…but at what cost? What is slowly being taken away from you that is not immediately self-evident? And consider that, in the longer term, that actual cost of that little bit of ‘green’ eco-saving that you bought into is the permanent revocation of your choice to be relatively free of the taxes, interest, and regulation that always follows AFTER you plunked your money down.
So what does this have to do with ‘roller cams’ and synthetic oil? It’s not bad technology, but the reason it’s there isn’t about a positive impact on the environment. There may be a little truth to that, but that’s more marketing spin than truth. It’s about money. It’s about getting us to throw away perfectly good equipment and buy more new stuff…
Now, I don’t intend to debate this with anyone. I’m putting this out because there’s truth in it and I thought it might be important for those who haven’t lived as long, (translation: the naïve), to give some thought to…History is full of inventions and ‘new’ things that went to the scrap heap because the public eventually, collectively got fed-up. But, as most corporations and politicians understand…the public focus can be shifted and redirected easily with a slick enough set of ads. So, while I don’t dispute that a roller would be the bomb for a AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l …don’t just go adopting new stuff because the package says it’s better.
About 20 years ago, the U.S. Congress was actually debating a law that would make it illegal to operate a motor vehicle on the highways that was older than 10 years. The public logic was safety and pollution. Fortunately, thanks to SEMA and others, that never happened. That was merely one of many continued attempts by powerful corporations to control the flow of money to them by eliminating our ability to work on, repair, and keep our own, paid-off vehicles.
I’m all for progress, especially if it benefits me, my family, or the world at large…but too often we get marketed into accepting things as ‘good’ with no real understanding of WTF just happened. Do you think that the complexity of modern vehicles is simple technological progress? Do you think the OBDI and II exist for you?
Sure, there are some real benefits to adopting new practices and designs…but at what cost? What is slowly being taken away from you that is not immediately self-evident? And consider that, in the longer term, that actual cost of that little bit of ‘green’ eco-saving that you bought into is the permanent revocation of your choice to be relatively free of the taxes, interest, and regulation that always follows AFTER you plunked your money down.
So what does this have to do with ‘roller cams’ and synthetic oil? It’s not bad technology, but the reason it’s there isn’t about a positive impact on the environment. There may be a little truth to that, but that’s more marketing spin than truth. It’s about money. It’s about getting us to throw away perfectly good equipment and buy more new stuff…
Now, I don’t intend to debate this with anyone. I’m putting this out because there’s truth in it and I thought it might be important for those who haven’t lived as long, (translation: the naïve), to give some thought to…History is full of inventions and ‘new’ things that went to the scrap heap because the public eventually, collectively got fed-up. But, as most corporations and politicians understand…the public focus can be shifted and redirected easily with a slick enough set of ads. So, while I don’t dispute that a roller would be the bomb for a AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l …don’t just go adopting new stuff because the package says it’s better.
