I thought I would post a video from an important contemporary thinker. I could say much here, but I hope at least a few of you give this twenty-minute video a chance. At least watch the first five minutes.
I am quite passionate about the psychological, environmental, and aesthetic damage that has been wrought by the soulless contemporary American sprawling suburb. Even as we have urgent conversations about resource use, I daily watch as bulldozers level more pastoral land. Next come the five-lane roads with names such as "Sams-Lowes Boulevard."
Rick Santorum: Mitt Romney 'didn't tell the truth' about supporting federal
individual mandate
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Rick Santorum last night on Piers Morgan's CNN show, slamming Mitt Romney
for having supported the individual mandate at the federal level:
What I'd l...
22 hours ago
Watched the whole thing. Excellent lecture. I have been grumbling about this very thing for a long time. The character of the land and living space here has been diminished to the extent that horizons have disappeared, and the little nuances of Earth that gave personality to the natural order of the land removed...flattened, filled, gone. The sense of community has been lost to the barren walls of the big box operations and what used to be our town center has been gutted. Modern development has become synonymous with degradation around here, and the quality of life has suffered. Most of the potential for rational progressive development has gone the way of chaos and cement. You wouldn't believe how beautiful it used to be here where I'm living in the Tualatin Valley, Oregon, USA. Little streams, gullies, rolling landscapes of meadows and woods, clean breezes, and a wide variety of wildlife, smeared away ending in the very results seen in this lecture video....if it had been done right to begin with, we could have retained the precious qualities that are now lost. I feel lucky as to have been fortunate enough to have lived to see what it actually looked like before it all happened....it was a paradise.
ReplyDeleteI find it difficult to forget that before the sprawl of today, before the pioneer settlers yesterday, live a people in absolute harmony with the environment. We should have joined their tribes instead of pushing out of their lands. Too bad, I bet we don't know what natural beauty really is.
ReplyDeleteLike Joni Mitchell said "...Paved Paradise, put up a Parking Lot".
ReplyDeletePeter,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the video. It was very very educational. I think everyone should watch the entire video because the climax of his remarks comes at the end of his speech when he talks about change.
Favorite quotes:
“We have to do everything very differently, and America is not prepared. We are sleep walking into the future. We are not ready what is coming at us.”
“Please please stop referring to yourself as consumers. Consumers are different than citizens. Consumers do not have obligations, responsibilities and duties to their fellow human beings.”
Audrey
I agree with the 'consumer' comment....when the health care field started referring to patients as 'consumers',...it weirded me out.
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