Posted on: December 17, 2007 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

Away With All Cars / $2 / :30 / 32M / B.M. Jed, London, WC1N 3XX /

The first thing that is striking about the cover of “Away With All Cars” is that it has absolutely nothing to do with the content that Mr. Social Control writes about. I suppose one could stretch it into a commentary on the fetishization of automobiles in society, but like I said, it is a pretty weak way to start out the zine. “Away With All Cars” is much more based in the philosophy side of things than anything really concrete, but some of the assumptions that Mr. Control makes would be nice if they came through. For example, “without traffic, cities could come alive.” This is a complete falsehood, as the centers of trade that were created in the first place would disintegrate and stores would collect in smaller clusters in residential areas. The downtown that individuals think of when they see a big city would have tumbleweeds rolling through it. While there are a number of facts thrown in at the end of the zine, there are some serious problems with the dated nature of what is quoted. As far as I can see, the zine is over a decade old; I understand the importance of keeping certain things sacrosanct, but when Mr. Social Control quotes books from 1991, one begins to wonder exactly what has happened in the fourteen or so years since the zine was created. Still, the bulk of the zine would not need to be changed, and the message still stands: away with all cars, life would be much better without them.

Rating: 5.4/10

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