"The World is Around You, but You are in Your Car" is a work of fiction wrapped around an essay that describes an American problem-the relentless pursuit of the perfect life-and its negative consequences that adversely affect progress and behavior toward the rest of the world. "I want it, and I want it now," with its shortage of self-restraint, has been taken to levels not reached before, and the insidious ramifications are eye-opening: the easy disposability of people or principles if these should obstruct the path to the perfect life, the mental depression from the strains of struggling to keep up with neighbors, or the isolation from reality as people become more and more comfortable in their plush living rooms and cars.
The tale brings history's great philosophers together to sound an alarm and talk about ways to slow the relentless pursuit. They have already debated the relevant issues with each other; here in this story, their role is only to inform us of their conclusions. They discuss the external and internal controls that restrain the pursuit, agreeing that internal control, involving individual self-regulation, is more effective and desired than external control, primarily because of its greater conduciveness to freedom, the crown jewel of this civilization.