Why I Don't Like the Hummer

I was reading the book, A Whole New Mind the other day. Part of the idea behind it is that in our world today we have moved into more of a synthesis of right- and left-brain thinking. For example, functionality isn't always enough. Design is also part of it.

As I was reading it suddenly dawned on my why I hate Hummers as much as I do. I see one and I almost automatically get angry. I don't get that way with other gas guzzlers like BIG luxury cars or Ford Explorer SUVs. Show me a big luxury car and I might even stop to admire it. Only the Hummer gets me almost livid. It is a visceral reaction. There is one that parks here at my apartment building and I can barely look at the thing.

And the answer was in that simple word, design. I have a hunch that the design says several things that I don't like. One is that it is really a mini-tank. I thought at first that it had to do with being a military vehicle. But then I remembered both the Jeep and the Volkswagen. No one would ever accuse either of those as being in your face military. But an armored vehicle stripped to be a consumer product. That is truly an In-Your-Face attitude.

Which I realized is the second thing about the Hummer's design. It is truly a "Flip-Off-The-World" vehicle. When you look at someone driving one, you see the person as this tiny part of a huge "other" that is saying- by design- I'm the biggest, baddest one on the block. It has that look about it. It's mean and nasty and BIG. There have been cars that are biggest and baddest, but they are nothing, absolutely nothing like a Hummer.

The Mustang or a classic muscle car are different. They have a class about them. They even look fast and powerful sitting still. The Hummer looks BIG. The muscle car says "Let's go for a race, I'll win." The Hummer says, "Stay out of my way. Don't even think about it."

All right, maybe I do have some Hummer envy, although I don't think so. The price of gas and all other things being equal I would take a muscle car, a Mustang, even a Ford F-150 ANY DAY. But not the Hummer. It has designed itself out of my league.

But I see what the book was talking about. Design can be the whole story.