Contesting the Radical Monopoly: a Critical View on the Motorized Culture from a Cyclonaut Perspective

Abstract

In our motorized societies, the “radical monopoly” (Illich) of the automobile is the evidence that our engine culture dominates. At the socio-technical level, we are all beginning to be “motorcentric”, in the same way that we are egocentric, ethnocentric, and anthropocentric. I argue that traveling on a bicycle – i.e. becoming a “cyclonaut” – engenders per se a decentering experience. It fosters a critical outlook on the norms and usages of engine culture. The cyclist perspective can provide a phenomenological experience that introduces levels of consciousness (sensitive, ethical and political), typically neglected in the status quo dominated by automobiles. The automobile radical monopoly contributes to the dependency on fossil fuels driving climate change. From an environmental virtue ethics standpoint, a cyclonaut’s experience promotes a new paradigm for mobility based on the re-appropriation of bodily-powered autonomous movement that broadens our social imagination and contributes to facing our current environmental crisis. It also promotes a positive shift in our value system that enables us to be an example of a richer experience. Contrary to the current irrational waste of energy, cycling can offer a joyfulness that reconnects us with the fundamental aspects of existence – self-awareness, connectivity to the world, nature, and beauty. This paper is based on reflections developed during the “Untaking Space Project”. a 6,000-mile philosophical cycling trip, from Miami to Vancouver, occurred between January and August 2016 (http://www.usproject2016.com).