Reading
WaPo and other MainStream Media can be a
frightening experience. It is even scarier when
you find that some of your own Dooryarders
believe the Business- As-Usual illusion that
there are quick, easy fixes for profound
economic, social and physical dysfunctions.
The
Context
The
Shape of the Future documents the
absolute necessity of civilization achieving a
sustainable trajectory.
Chapter 23, which focuses on
sustainability, cautions that citizens cannot
hope to leap to a sustainable trajectory
directly from current conditions.
That is because citizens are so badly
informed that they must first reach an interim
plateau – functional human settlement patterns
– from which to launch the drive to full sustainability.
We
ended Part Four of The Shape of the Future
– Six Overarching Strategies for Transforming
the Human Settlement Pattern – with a
discussion of critical policy choices.
These include addressing the “The
Dilemma of Profit” explored in Chapter 30 Box
5. We
further examined this subject and the need for
Fundamental Change in the Backgrounder “A
New Metric for Citizen Well Being,”
10 December 2006. (See End
Note One.)
In
“The
Beltway to
Easter Island,” we suggested that the
current trajectory of economic, social and
physical activity is coming ever closer to what
Jared Diamond calls “Collapse.”
In
“Good
News, Bad Reporting,” we pointed out that
if citizens were given a clear picture of
current events by MainStream Media they would be
better prepared for making the Fundamental
Transformations necessary to achieve and
sustainable trajectory for society.
In “Two
Spheres of Fraud,” we noted the current
trends in MainStream Media reporting on
addressing the Affordable and Accessible Housing
Crisis.
MainStream
Media Marches On
Here
are some recent observations on the topic of
MainStream Media coverage:
Air
travel. On
30 May CNN’s home page featured an AP story on
a Travel Industry Association survey: Due to
growing frustration with air travel – cost,
inconvenience, security delays, etc. – 41
million fights were not taken over the past 12
months. The
airline industry impact in “lost
opportunity” is pegged at $18.1 billion and the total
travel industry impact was $ 740 billion.
Someone in advertising apparently saw the
story and realized it might threaten CNN’s
airline and travel advertising revenue.
The story disappeared from the home page
soon after we first saw it.
The bottom line of the story supports our
view in “The
End of Flight as We Know It.”
We
have previously noted the failure of airline
ticket prices to reflect the negative impact of
aircraft operation on the upper atmosphere.
This is an important issue in the
European Union but not here in the US of A where
the airline Enterprises and Agencies are trying
to bury it. If
those impacts were added, ticket prices would be
far higher, sky higher.
A
day after the travel demand story, another AP
story appeared on some web sites reporting a
study by the International Federation of Airline
Pilot’s Associations concerning the danger of
toxic fumes in airplane cabins.
End
Note Two of “The End of Flight as We Knew
It” mentions Chronic Air Travel Disease.
We have seen no mention of this so far in
more widely circulated media.
Gasoline
prices. What
can be more disingenuous than MainStream Media
whining about gasoline prices?
Where were they in 1973 when it became
obvious to many that if human settlement
patterns did not change, Mobility and Access
would be dependent upon Autonomobiles and that
at some point gasoline would be $10 a gallon?
Instead
of running stories about how much high gasoline
prices are hurting commuters, MainStream Media
should take 5 percent of their ad
revenue since 1973 from Automonobiles, scattered
urban development and image ads for gas
and oil companies
, and put
it in a fund to help commuters retrain and
relocate themselves to become noncommuters.
The
stories about how many more shared-vehicle
system riders, and how many more bikers there
are due to high gas prices puts the lie to the
old saw that demand for Vehicle Miles Traveled
in Single Occupant Vehicles is
"inelastic."
It
turns out that talk of “inelasticity” came
from those who want to try to ride the tiger a
little longer. The
strategy was that if many think demand for
driving is “inelastic” then ‘leaders’
will not try to raise the cost of inefficient
Mobility and Access strategies to cover their
cost.
Giving
credit where credit is due.
It was a refreshing change of pace to see
Steven Pearlstein’s 28 May column “The
Fading of the Mirage Economy” in WaPo.
Pearlstein
provides a clear picture of why it is
essential to achieve a "new
equilibrium" and, we would add, move on to
establish a sustainable trajectory for society.
Columnist
Robert Samuelson’s 28 WaPo op-ed
“solution” to global poverty is put in
perspective by Herman E. Daly’s short, sharp
letter of 30 May also in WaPo.
Daly, author of “Beyond Growth”
suggests that “in our already full world,
further growth in GDP is increasing
environmental and social costs ... faster than
it increases production benefits, making us
poorer, not richer.”
His whole letter is worth reading, it is
short.
And
we cannot forget WaPo running James
Howard Kunstler’s “Grand Delusion: Wake Up,
American. We’re Driving Toward Disaster.”
Kunstler is clearer in this summary of his
thinking than he was in the interview that Jim
Bacon profiled in his Bacons Rebellion blog
post, “So
Long, Suburbia?” By the way the comments
following that post included a lot of tiger
riders – and some good advice. You sort it
out, it is not hard.
Right in the Dooryard
All
the MainStream Media obfuscation and theoretical
debate came into sharp focus late last week when
we stopped to talk to a Dooryarder who was
putting back up a wind damaged shutter.
He collects vintage Autonomobiles so one
would not expect him to embrace the perspective
of THE
PROBLEM WITH CARS but we were not prepared
for his vehement defense of continued
consumption of gasoline and his state of denial
concerning the end of cheap energy.
In
his view it is all the fault of Congress and
other “thems” who are preventing the logical
and intelligent exploitation of all conceivable
remaining petroleum reserves regardless of cost
or danger of extraction.
He cited the existence of “Russian and
Chinese drilling off the cost of
Florida
” in the area “that was put off limits by
Congress” as evidence that the US
of A economy is being ruined by “them” and
not by the consumption of “us.”
(See End
Note Two.)
In
“Good
News, Bad Reporting,” we argued that
getting unbiased and unfiltered information will
prepare citizens to make intelligent decisions.
As documented in THE
ESTATES MATRIX, and reinforced by the
material in “Good New, Bad Reporting” and
noted above, that is not what citizens are
getting.
The
conversation with a Dooryarder who is happy to
ride the tiger as long as is possible suggests
time is running out.
It can be argued that the sooner we have
a really big economic “awakening,” not just
“the seventh recession since World War II,”
the sooner citizens will demand intelligent
action.
Hopefully
that will come while the US of A still has the
resources to make Fundamental Transformations
and preserve the ability to maintain a democracy
with a market economy.
--
June 2, 2008
End
Notes
(1).
The current presidential campaign is
saturated with references to “change.”
There is no thought of considering
Fundamental Change.
In fact the word “change” has been so
devalued by the meaningless blather that in TRILO-G
we will refer to Fundamental Transformation
using the term “transformation” as an
indication of the magnitude of importance
suggested by the use of the term by David
Herlihy in his seminal book, “The Black Death
and the Transformation of the West.”
(2).
It turns out that Cuba
is negotiating with Canadian, Norwegian,
Chinese, Russian and Spanish companies to drill
in its territorial waters.
And who has maintained an antagonistic
stance vis a vis Cuba
for short term political ends?
Both the Elephant Clan and the Donkey
Clan. And
what has this to do with the end of cheap
energy? Nothing
that we can see.
Perhaps
a rational policy, not just for Cuba
but for the entire Caribbean, would be a good idea.
We have ignored, baited and insulted our
Global Dooryarders and Clustermates while we
court those halfway around the world if they
have oil to sell.
The US of A has an irrational
Middle East
policy driven by silly notion that cheap fuel is
a good idea worth any sacrifice.
This policy has been implemented by what
Scott McClellan calls the strategy of
Perpetual Campaigning by the Elephant Clan and
Donkey Clan. It sounds like the
introduction to PROPERTY DYNAMICS written two
years ago.
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