I just came back from the Clusterfuck Nation Chronicles where Mr Kunstler lays the blame for the war on all of us. We all want that nice home in the suburbs, away from the exaggerated crime in the city. We've all mortgaged our future for easy oil and the belief that the supply is endless. And one truth that Bush has spoken, this war is about the American way life and preserving it in all it's foolishness.
So unless you're willing to give up that commute in the pack of metal lemmings solitarily driving in the same direction with all the other gadgets and gizmos that keep us isolated from each other, unless you're willing to stop supporting the box stores and strip malls selling cheap crap made by slave labor in China that you just can't seem to live with out so badly that you took out a second mortgage to finance it, you are in fact supporting the war. But nobody wants to be unfashionable and we all need that sense of superiority knowing that no one of questionable ethnicity lives more than ten miles away from us, because as much as we pretend to be open minded about that sort of thing, deep down we know that they frighten us and God knows, we have enough things in this world that we can't control to scare the shit out of us, we don't need that big black guy in front of the grocery store living next door.
Yes, this war is the only way we can continue the drivethru culture, one where we never have to leave our car, not even to watch a dvd or have a meal, and the only way to end it is to stop supporting the twentyfour hour media disinformation culture that feeds the war machine. Unfortunately, too many of us are addicted to convenience that we have no idea how to survive with out the useless pointless and soon to be obsolete consumerist society that we have become.
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I've been posting on "Lose the Noose" now, wanting to focus specifically on the corporate deathgrip.I also mentioned Kunstler there recently. He really has a good handle on the suburban problem- and describes it well.
To elaborate on my hiatus, I started to find that I was overwhelmed by the freedom of a free-form blog. I think I prefer some structure! I figure we can talk about the political happenings at H+S and I can rant about my concerns about sprawl, etc. in the other. I am not concerned about blog traffic or counts- I am concerned that as many people as possible get out there and talk about these issues.
Your post (above) was one of my favorite to date because it touches on so much about what is wrong with us as a society. I hate to focus on negatives and take a judgemental view, but I rationalize it by reminding myself that other people suffer the consequences of these selfish acts. Now playing with jello is an act that hurts no one, is harmless, and I have no right to judge. Playing with lives, toxins, radioactive materials, nuclear weapons on hair trigger alert... are different matters...these things affect me, my family, my community.. judging that which destroys can be justified.
Much of the conflict we see can be traced back to precious suburbia and our misguided ways. Kunstler talks about the railroad and the notion of 'getting out of the city". I agree also on your racism/classism points too. Well, this means carving up nature for our own slice of earth. If we clustered people, we could leave more spaces wild and open, perhaps surrounding the town.
Recently Thomas Hylton, Pulitzer prize winner, came to speak locally about the notion of the town, places within walking distance...he talked about the ways pavement and parking lots prevent water from permeating the soil... our fixation with the car was a central theme and he contrasted us to Europe with bicycles and greenbelts.
Now don't get me wrong, I am not perfect, I drive and I participate in this madness, and poor planning necessitates that this remains so. But this business of people staying in their cars seems at best applicable to parents with babies and people that are disabled. Why do so many free, mobile people eat in their cars?
Suburbia has made all things too far and has us powerlessly reliant on oil.
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