hammer or model approach

The other day I had the pleasure of seeing my friend Kent, we met at his new job. He is now working for both the Bike Allience and Sammamish bikes, but come January he will be full time at the Bike Allience. I am very happy for him. This post has a lot to do with our conversation on our ride from Downtown Seattle towards his home in Issaquah, hope I spelled that right. While at the bike station I picked up a book, Divorce your Car, in fact I was there in part to supply him with my copy of Let my people go Surfing. I digress. Kent and his wife have been carfree, and when I say that I mean no car, not a car they dont use, I mean no car, nada zip. He rides, or they take the bus. NO car. The man has a lot of commitment. We talked about the benefits, I have been sans car, I am waiting for the title right now so that i can sell it. We have decided that we dont need two cars and will slim down to just a car for the time being. I would love to go car free, but as with everything it is a process, sometimes it is good to go cold turkey others takes time to brake habits of over 30 years. My girlfriend think of it as a nice idea right now, she is not willing to commit cold turkey. Can you blame her?
Getting to the point, I have as of late been raging, with my two fingers in the air, ranting raving about our society and the need for us to change our habits, about consumerism, about anything and everything that I want to express my opinion about. It is my point of view that the vast majority of people need to be woken up. I have not always been known for taking the easy road, I at times need to be hit over the head with the perverbial sledgehammer, I have never and will never claim to be with out my flaws. The flaws are what make me me, or at least that is what I telling myself. Thinking this about others helps me, it makes them easier to take, it helps me see their point of view. As of late my approach could be seen as the hammer as of late, I am pounding you readers and the world out there over the head, hoping that a crack my open and then something may sneek in to the consiousness.
Kent approach could be seen as a model approach, quietly doing his thing, providing a model for those that care to take note. Not yelling, not even making a verbal wave, just patiently modeling for all of us. Not much seems to bother Kent, he just moves through the world, thinking good things about most of our society, because lets face it most of us are good natured we just get crazy behind the wheel, lose focus for a second, daydream, we are not inherntly evil or out to cause harm and unrest. Chaos is part of our world, but most of us want peace and justice and to live out or lives in the good company of those around us. He thinks good things and gives people the benefit of making mistakes. Basically in my view he sees us all here just trying to get through the day, and in generally good.
I think that both approaches work, and I agree with him, and I think that he agrees with me, I think of it as a two pronged approach, those of us raging provide the cracks in the wall he provides the insiration and model. In this way we are two warriors out for the common good and the same goal. Ride on, pedal on and work for the same goal. thanks.