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[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

> 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.