[Culturechat] The Jim Kunstler posting

Sun, 26 Dec 2004 14:15:42 +0100

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I want to thank all of you who responded to my recent posting:
"What does Jim Kunstler know?" I appreciate you kind words, good wishes and
positive feedback. &nbsp;Many of you hadn't even read&nbsp; Kunstler comments, posted
by west texas, and you still reacted with support. &nbsp;For those of you who
said you would like to see what he wrote, here it is again. &nbsp;My reaction
is still the same, but I have calmed down somewhat! 
Enjoy your day, 
Barbara Roy 
Sachseln, Switzerland 
December 26, 2004 
 
December 15, 2004 
 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Paris was normal, which is to say the streets were thronged with
live human beings (hardly any of them overweight), the cafes and restaurants
were bustling, even the parks were well-populated on a brisk December day
and we were reminded emphatically of the stark contrast with the impoverished 
public life of America. In fact, one morning as we puttered in the hotel room
with CNN-Europe playing in the background, a story came on about retail sales
back in the States, and there was a shot of our supersized fellow countrymen 
waddling around in a WalMart dressed in the usual slob apparel by which they 
fail to make a distinction between being at home and being out in public. 
 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Amsterdam, Holland, was pretty much the same story as Paris, though 
it is physically quite different from Paris -- the scale is smaller, the intimate
streets are deployed along a network of beautiful canals, and the car is
barely tolerated (or even much in evidence). There, we would duck into a
"brown bar" (so-called because of the dark wooden wainscotting) at five p.m.
and it would be full of well-dressed, gainfully employed adults in animated
conversation. Public life in Europe is only minimally about shopping and
maximally about spending time with your fellow human beings. 
 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; American public life by comparison is pathetic-to-nonexistent. Americans 
venture out only to roam the warehouse depots, and only by car. In most American 
places bars are strictly for lowlifes, and the public realm for the employed 
classes is pretty much restricted to television, with its predictable cast 
of manufactured characters and situations. The alienation and isolation of 
American life is so pervasive and pathological, compared to life lived elsewhere 
in this world, that all the Prozac ever made will never avail to make things 
better for us. 
 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The process of making America an alienated land of solitary, obese
driver-shoppers has been very profitable for predatory corporations. They
have systematically disassembled the public social infrastructure and repackaged
pieces of it for sale -- starting with the single-family house isolated on
its lot from all the normal amenities of culture and society. Everybody now
has their 'home theater' so the cinema is only a place to park children for
two hours so you can drive elsewhere to buy the cheez doodles, frozen pizza,
Pepsi, and other staples of the American diet. You equip your kitchen with
an espresso machine and there is no reason to "waste your time" in a cafe.
Everybody has to have their own pool, so the kids can go swimming by themselves.
Family values. The rest of the human race is unimportant. 
 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; American adults are said to work far more hours than their European 
counterparts. Clearly, that is because they have no place to "be" with other 
people besides the WalMart, and no way to get anyplace except the car. On 
top of this fantastic alienation, there is the inescapable din of manufactured 
Christmas festivity, which must only reinforce the deep,chronic loneliness 
of most average Americans, the utter lack of connection with other people. 
In Paris there was hardly a Santa to be seen, or a carol to be heard, though 
the busy and beautiful streets were saturated with cheer and conviviality. 
 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; What is also striking in contrast is the stupendous and immersive
ugliness of all "normal" American daily environments. Public beauty in buildings
and streets is not merely absent, it seems to have been rigorously banished. 
Americans now move continually through a machine terrain unmediated by any 
reminders of what it means to be human.&nbsp;&nbsp;Our most celebrated architects are 
high priests of the machine ethos. America has become a country of sad, lonely, 
and frightened people. We say that we like our way of life, but I suspect 
that many Red staters have never known anything else besides the six-lane 
highway, the box store, and the life of cable TV. The widespread demoralization 
is too great to be calculated. 
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