Originally Posted by
cooker
Yes, I think the word "cult" to describe either living with or without cars, is probably a bit too loaded with preconceptions to facilitate what I think you want to discuss - correct me if I am wrong - that deviating from the majority lifestyle will cause at least some people to see you as a bit of a freak to be mocked, or a lost soul who has to be talked back into sense; and they may not realize that to some extent they are acting the role of enforcers of normality and conformity because of some insecurity of their own. And this would be true whether you're a vegan, atheist, banker turned busker, or in this case, someone moving away from car-dependence.
This is true, but if you look at it from a transportation standpoint, it's like the technology came out about a century ago and the fad turned into a cult, which grew to recreate everything into its own image. If you look at Dutch cities, the effect is similar except cycling is included in the cult so there are red bike lanes and traffic signals everywhere instead of just lanes, signals, signs parking lots, etc. made for driving.
Maybe it's really just impossible to imagine escaping the cult you're in until you perceive something outside of it to escape into. If you can't imagine anything more or less than the culture you use to accomplish life, you've given in to the cult-pressure, and whenever you start questioning whether some other form of life is possible outside the cult, the other cult members view you as crazy and maybe a threat to the cult.
Have you ever seen the original Star Trek episode, 'Return of the Archons,' where everyone on a planet is under the spell of a supercomputer that maintains peace and prosperity by creating a cult of worship? In that case, the cult is definitely majoritarian, almost ubiquitous, but there are a few people who question it and see it for what it is. Driving is also almost ubiquitous, and the automobile is worshiped in some ways, along with the economic privileges it brings with it, but I supposed people don't behave as cultish around it as they did around Landrew in that Star Trek episode, but then the cult of Landrew was maybe overdramatized for the sake of clarity and emphases. Real, everyday majoritarian cults like that of driving might just operate more subtly; otherwise people would see them as cults and question them.