Inconvenient Admission: Kunstler’s Blog is Better than Mine
Don’t read my blog. Read James Howard Kunstler’s. He’s a lot smarter, a lot funnier, and has outpublished me by a count of something like fifty to zero.
Below, I’ve posted a snippet from yesterday’s Kunstler post, one which I hope you will read in it’s entirety HERE. He rips straight to the heart of the matter: the refusal of the eco-gentry to be truly inconvenienced.
“My position on this can be easily misunderstood. I don’t want civilization to collapse (I like Mozart and access to root canal). I don’t want Homo sapiens to go extinct, or the planet to parboil. I certainly don’t believe in doing nothing in the face of this emergency. But I also don’t believe we are going to make any hassle-free switch in the way we run things — or that we should want to. Would the USA be a better place if we could run Wal-Mart and Las Vegas on wind power? I don’t think so. Would the public benefit from another hundred years of suburban living — and an economy based largely on creating ever more of it? All the Prozac in the universe would not avail to offset the diminishing returns of that bullshit.
In my travels, I have noticed a disturbing theme among the educated minority of eco-advocates: they are every bit as dedicated to the status quo (in their own way) as the NASCAR morons and shopping mall developers. The eco-advocates want cars, too, and all the prerogatives (like free parking and country living) that go with them, just like the WalMart shoppers. If this were not so, then why do the eco-advocates cream in their jeans whenever somebody presents a snazzy new vehicle that runs on a fuel other than gasoline? Indeed, why are some of the eco-friendly pouring all their efforts into the invention of such things instead of into walkable communities and the reform of our stupid land-use laws?”
Again, read the entire post HERE. Then bookmark Kunstler’s page and check back with him. Oh, and it’s okay to bookmark mine as well as, in aping his form, I’m bound to say something somewhat entertaining at some point.
(Why the pic of Captain Kangaroo? Well, he had a sidekick named Mr. Green Jeans. . . reference is made by Kunstler. . . a bit obscure, but so is this website!)
[tags]climate change, james howard kunstler, kunstler, walmart[/tags]
Tags: automotive, Inconveniences
The car issue is a tough one for me. Some of us don’t view cars as other do: toasters; an appliance to get us to and from places. Some of us actually enjoy driving cars, we love working on them, the way they look or sound or even smell.
It makes me sad to think that someday, those beautiful 60s Ferraris or 70s BMWs, or even the 20s Bentleys won’t have a place in our lives anymore except behind glass somewhere.
I drive a 1970 BMW 2800CS (E9) coupe with a 2.8L dual carb engine. To me, giving that up is unthinkable. I’ve spent almost my entire life looking and waiting for that car; no kidding. It’s my dream car. There is nothing like driving that car to and from work, or anywhere for that matter. It actually makes me look forward to going to work in the morning.
However, it does get over 25MPG and could do much better if I was to tweak it a bit more.
I’m with you on this one, Kirk. The number I’ve dream cars I covet is beyond belief. From a Volvo P1800 wagon to a new Maserati to crappy old 60s Saabs to what you’re driving (sweet), the list goes on and on. But looking at things from a clinical perspective, it becomes clear that our car habits must wither. This isn’t to say there won’t be a place for Sunday drives, however. Just that we’ll have to limit our annual mileage, perhaps. It isn’t the vehicle that is so awful, as we’ve found we can change it or it’s power source. No, it’s the way we’ve made our cities and states 100% energy inefficient in an effort to make them more vehicle friendly.
Again, another massive INCONVENIENCE.
Sigh.
Kunstler is a scary good read.