"There's no sense in choosing a beaten path if it takes you the wrong way."
--Walapai Pete
"If we do not change our course, we are likely to end up in the direction we are headed."
--Confucianism
I would like to contribute to the discussion of visions for America, vis-a-vis the Democratic platform. What I propose may sound like an impossible fool's errand. It's depressing to think it may be. But unless America changes direction, she -- that is to say, we -- will find ourselves out of gas on a dead end road. We are on a path of self-destruction. We have a travelling companion, and it is only on this companion's word that we take the path we do. We must part company with this false friend and walk toward greener fields. Let us set out for a future for our children's children's children.
Continues...
First, I make assumptions on the relationship between problems and solutions, namely: problems exist at various magnitudes or scales; for a solution to be optimally effective, it must be conceived and applied at the same scale as the problem. Also: problems tend to create other problems; solutions that target instigating factors resolve related things together.
America is beset with problems. Let's consider one of our biggest problems: our energy appetite. For the moment, let's consider just one part of that appetite: the amount of petroleum we use for transportation. Transportation use accounts for over two-thirds of the twenty million barrels of oil America demands EVERY DAY. Because of the physical way we layout and build our cities, we have to buy and use cars. We have a built-in need to use oil because we have a built-in need to use cars. This is a national strategic mistake of the first order.
That's the bad news: our travelling companion is the automobile itself. Our destination is controlled by the means we use to get there. And at current rates, we don't have far to go. We have adopted automobile technology as a house pet and it has multiplied and grown to govern its keeper. It dictates a good deal of our foreign policy. It kills or injures some forty-two thousand people annually (U.S. only). It creates pollution and contributes to environmental degradation. Automobiles are expensive, hazardous, socially destructive, environmentally irresponsible, and a perilous Achilles Heel of our national body as we oblige ourselves to war in order to feed them.
And by the same foot, as it were, we have cities that are unwalkable. We are divided from each other by the distances that automobile use imposes. These distances, these divisions, hobble us -- physically, emotionally, socially, politically. I can not help but believe that these distances, these divisions, create social pathologies that contribute to our being such a violent society, estranged from each other and from our world.
Such are our cities. But the good news is that we can do something about all this. We can build cities differently. That is to say, we can build new urban infrastructure that is very efficient, and we can encourage efficient building practices within existing infrastructure with more modest gains. Either way, we move toward more sustainable ground.
It is the current fashion to say that we need only grow our fuel, or that we can develop electric vehicles, or fuel cell technology -- something that extends our current course. Perhaps we will; we are a creative people. But this overlooks the continued need to consume significant quantities of energy just for common mobility. It doesn't take into consideration that pesky law of thermodynamics: all energy use degrades to heat. Surely it is clear that we must reduce our energy consumption.
Besides, staying the course doesn't address the insideous problems of social separation. This is one time when we absolutely must NOT stay the course.
So, you want a fifty-year vision for America? Let's compare. Mr. Bush's vision is to send America to mars -- perhaps so we might forget how he has brought Mars here to earth? This is shortsighted, cockeyed, astigmatic, myopic. It overlooks too much. We need to focus our vision here at home. We need to see America through what will likely be the most perilous half-century in history.
I say aim high. Let's have a vision that will bring America to its feet and full stature. Let's go after the big-stakes problem with more than just a promise and a kiss and a little grease in the back room. The problem is energy gluttony. We can most efficiently reduce our energy appetite if we address it as a problem on the scale of whole cities. The way a city is built determines how much energy it needs to operate, and how it either divides or multiplies the human energy of the system. Let us, therefore, see our cities as the embodiment of how we treat ourselves and how we care for our children. Healthy, vital and prosperous cities are desired by all. It is a comprehensible goal. And when arguments are framed in terms of our children's children's children, there are no red or blue states.
The Greek root, ecos, means "house". From that, we get our words economics and ecology. One deals with well-being writ small, the other, writ large. If we strive for one at the expense of the other then we will end up with neither. Let's put a little effort into justifying our claim to the crown of sapiens: let's look to our house; let's look after our home. Otherwise, we may be on the streets in fifty years.
