Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

homestead - Re: [Homestead] Deep Economy

homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Homestead mailing list

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Deep Economy
  • Date: Thu, 10 May 2007 06:59:35 -0700

Politicians now promise more and more as if it were better but since more
and better are now widely separated, it is getting more difficult to keep
those promises.

Hence the more outlandish the circus acts in the ballsroom of the DC Whorehouse.

At the base of bigger-is-better are insecure humans attempting to feel that they are important. Self-image. Nothing save hunger and reproduction drives human activity more.

Growing up at the edge of a small town and then a farm I had that as my image of the proper world into which I fit. In the Army in Japan I saw Tokyo and Yokohama often and saw common poverty amongst big buildings. Back in the USA I have lived about half my life in cities, 35-40 years in San Francisco, Seattle, LA edges, Little Rock (a small city), Phoenix. As a tourist and on author tours I have seen San Diego, Dallas, Minneapolis, Chicago, DC, and many more.

In all those cities there have been and are people who are working hard to feel important. To accomplish this they become involved in business, politics, bureaucracy and the arts. In all those pursuits, bigger is perceived as better. The mayor of New York is deemed more important than the mayor of Little Rock. With the lone exception of Portland I have never observed a city of sanity, of growing intelligently rather than helter-skelter. Politicians and planners posture that they are working hard and smartly to grow their big baby, but truth be told, their need to feel important and the desire to make big money, which is the most common way of feeling important, is the driving force behind thousand-home subdivisions that strain already stretched utilities and traffic arteries, and ever-taller skyscrapers, whose architects feel mighty important, too.

Ours is yet a young country. In Europe are structures ten times older than our oldest historical artifacts. Some European cities seem to have settled down to a size that works. Perhaps those citizens have become comfortable with their humanity. If they walk to work and if their food and fuel comes from not far away, their lives may be sustainable.

Meanwhile, here in one of the fastest-growing places in the US, there is breathtaking land development. Vast, encircling freeway systems are planned and built, stretching the edges of the metropolis ever farther into the desert. On the individual level, the need to feel important becomes ever more obscene. Patio kitchens are built that cost more than the average American home. In-home theaters seat fifty of one's closest friends, or whomever one is trying to impress. Architectural details are imported and incorporated in mansions far beyond the needs of the occupants. One is reminded of William Randolph Hearst, who built one of the biggest monuments to fear and ego. He was important, by gosh. Just look at that San Simeon place.

What's to be done to stand against the insanity? Get some dirt, build a shack, cut firewood and grow a garden. Know that sustaining oneself is importance enough.




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page