In a curious and irrelevant overnight prank, an unknown number of eco-fools deflated dozens of car tires on campus Tuesday, leaving notes on the cars reading Happy Fossil Fools Day! Drive Less.""
The pranksters didn't actually slash the tires, but most of the Langdon-area victims must have been upset. Despite the relative harmlessness of the joke, we can't help but wonder: What were these environmental jokesters trying to accomplish?
Perhaps they merely wanted to keep the cars and their polluting fossil fuels off Madison roads, if only for a few hours. This likely worked only until gas-hogging tow trucks showed up to take the cars away, and unless the pranksters were waiting in ambush to deflate those tires too, they caused more pollution than they prevented.
Then again, maybe their aim was more abstract - raising awareness, for example. They certainly got the attention of Langdon Street residents, and the creativity with which they carried out the joke is intruiging.
But who exactly was their target? Most of the cars likely belonged to students, who don't even drive much in the first place. Students only own cars because they are necessary, as it's often impossible to travel back and forth from the grocery store, a job or even home without one.
The activists would have been better off sabotaging a mode of transportation that represents an actual luxury for students - mopeds, for example. Most moped owners would get along fine walking or biking from Point A to Point B, and while we in no way endorse this sort of vandalism, the tricksters could have better served their cause by deflating the hundreds of motor scooters lined up outside university buildings.
The joke failed not only because it was annoying and misdirected, but also because it took aim at individual victims. Maybe the anonymous architects of the plan only meant to be funny in leaving people tireless, but to car owners and rational activists alike, the joke likely just seemed tiresome.
