Man Or Machine?

April 27th, 2007 at 04:54am Keith Hemstreet 8

The off-season is upon us.  A glorious time when you can walk down the sidewalk and not see a single person for blocks.  In the past week, however, the tourist mobs have been replaced by machinery - beeping, thumping exhaust spewing machines. This led me to ask myself a simple question, “Which do I prefer, machines or tourists?”

Machines, when in the right hands, result in improvement, progress. Machines beautify our town, revitalizing distressed buildings and homes, improving infrastructure, and removing unwanted waste.

Tourists use and abuse our resources.  As a result, each tourist carries with them a depreciation factor, increasing the devaluation of all they touch.

Machinery, like tourists, can also be an annoyance, but machines lack pretentiousness, vanity, and a sense of entitlement.  Therefore machines cannot act like assholes.

I must admit, tourists aren’t all bad.  In fact, they play a vital role in our ability to sustain an existence in this heavenly place.  What is it that they do?  They spend money, thus strengthening the economy and keeping us all employed.  Without tourists, we would probably be without a job, though I have not been convinced this is an absolute positive.

So, which do I prefer? A tourists congested town in which I can find employment, or a town crawling with massive machines in which I can exist without frequent insult or swallowing of pride?

Since I’ve found that it is difficult to live in harmony with other human beings due to their objectionable nature, I choose machines.

Entry Filed under: Aspen, People, Comedy