Vehicles

Pg. 103 "Why walk when you could ride? Americans have always been obsessed with the idea of labor-saving machinery. In all walks of life, industry struggles in an endless race to invent and perfect machines that make the chores of everyday life faster, easier, and more efficient. And what could be a greater deity of American techno-religion than the automobile? No matter what our age, gender, race, economic status, or geographic location, we are taught that this omnipotent machine, in all of its wondrous forms, is the answer to our prayers. Why wouldn't this be true during a zombie outbreak? Wouldn't it make sense to just race across hostile ground? Travel time would be reduced from days to mere hours. Equipment storage would no longer be a problem. And what danger would zombies present when you could simply run them over? These are powerful advantages, to be sure, but with them come a host of equally powerful problems."

The author here is exploring the concept of our society's fascination with technology. People now a days are obsessed with getting the newest and most expensive technologies. In this passage, Brooks identifies the automobile as our greatest creation. We work on it all the time and everyone longs to have one, or if one is already owned, to get a better one. I completely agree with him on this topic.
Brooks is saying that we waste too much time on such materialistic things. In the event of an emergency, they could even be our downfall. I think that he is right. With all the war and famine that plagues the world, our society is too caught up on meaningless possessions. Being human means we help each other, not waste $30k on a new car when you have a perfectly good one. That money could've been better used by charity and not by our own selfish greed.