Camp Suburbia

I don’t mean to insult people who live in campers out of necessity — it probably does make a certain amount of financial sense in some of today’s real estate markets — or eco-campers utilizing solar power and generally trying to be quiet and responsible. What I’m talking about is the phenomenon I’ve observed in my own recent travels, of oversize diesel pickups hauling enormous RVs hauling all manner of “toys” — motorcycles and 4-wheelers and dune buggies; of gargantuan RVs that literally look like tractor trailers; of people using, yes, weed whackers and obnoxiously loud generators that are the aural equivalent of a hammer to the head for hours on end. Back in the ’90s and early 2000s, we used to make fun of SUVs for being road hogs. Remember when Hummers seemed excessive? Now everything is getting bigger and louder and more disgusting, and no one even seems to notice anymore. The fact that Americans seem more oblivious than ever to this stuff, at this moment of climate crisis, with ice shelves collapsing and coral reefs experiencing a mass die-off, is astounding.