Raise the Hammer

Although my mention of Kunstler was limited in scope (viz. expansion or shrinking of cities), and not intended to be a critique of his views-at-large - considering the concern that some have expressed here in my referencing him, below are some thoughts on this.

If one dispassionately follows the arguments of the globalization movement and the relocalization movement – an outgrowth of the much older localism movement, one can clearly see that much in this realm is about ideologies - as much as there are claims about scientific facts.

Yet there is so little we care to know about the forces that cross over between ideologies and scientific facts.

Positions taken on either side of Peak Oil and its broad impact on the way we have been living - are based on who we read, and what we allow to capture our imagination.

Whether it may already be happening - or not, unfortunately the underlying message of "the imperative for a smaller foot-print on earth" gets tinged by the missionary zeal of positions on either side. Facts and solutions are the victims in this.

Although Marion King Hubbert introduced the idea of Peak Oil first in 1956 (55 years ago) with his famous Peak Oil bell curve, while publishing his first scientific paper on this subject in 1949 -- he also co-founded Technocracy Inc, (1) a non-profit technocracy organization, in 1933 with Howard Scott, (whom he considered extremely knowledgeable in physics) -- which proposed a new governmental system. Technocracy had its inception in 1919 in New York City in an organization known as the Technical Alliance of North America. A defining document of this movement is The Energy Card from 1938.

"Technocracy advocates contend that price system based forms of government and economy are structurally incapable of effective action, and promoted a more rational and productive type of society headed by "technical experts". The group’s aim was to design a new system of production and distribution(energy accounting) based for continental North America that would provide a better standard of living while conserving non-renewable resources and *ensuring an economy of abundance."*

Below are some excerpts from Technocracy's website for you to see how foggy this resource depletion issue is -- especially if you were to map the chronology of these thoughts with the careers involved here, the frequency of oil-shock journalism, and scientific press releases on resource depletion.

One may never know if the economy is tanking on account of actual resource depletion or an ideology with aspirations for a new world order which claims to be based on science itself as below:

On cities: From 1992 - Technocracy's job is to make North Americans aware of what the future holds, the dangers and the opportunity. Once the public sees what the possibilities are with this new form of governance, surprising changes can unfold.

At present, cities grow with no direction; efforts to control them are only after the fact -- when a problem has already gotten out of control. A city should be built only after research has determined where industries can best process natural resources and where the population needs or wants a city.

What are some aspects of such a city? Experience has shown that humans do best if they are not crowded. If more than 14 or 15 thousand live close to one another, something is lost. But, on the other hand, a community should be big enough so there can be a full range of facilities, schools, recreations and hospitals. Thus a city should be more vertical than sprawling, with trees, grass and open spaces. Interesting studies have been made of how people utilize space and arrange their environment. They need their privacy and at the same time they need to feel near other people.

It seems clear that the ground level of a city should be for people; services and vehicles should be sub-surface. Today, street after street is lined with shops hawking merchandise and with the alleys and lanes clogged with vehicles and refuse. Transportation to places of work or interest can be by underground rapid transit, and many forms of rapid transit are waiting in the wings for the selection of designers who will have the job of harmonizing human desire with physical reality.

On Continentalism: We of North America must realize that only a contiguous continentalism operated by a technological control can produce a national policy capable of having its reflex, its foreign policy as an exportable ideology of national welfare desired and hoped for by the people of the nations of the world.

How Do We Get There From Here? From 1996: Many people are concerned, or should be, with methods of transition from today's antiquated Price System into an intelligent society, in which all North Americans can share in the plentiful production of a highly technological age. …Unfortunately, this mental transition is difficult, in view of all the misinformation and economic superstitions which have been drilled into our heads since birth.

An age of peace and plenty is now possible.

Must it require a major depression to encourage serious thought?

Cooperation and knowledge are the keys to success and it may be expected from those who have the intelligence to understand Technocracy's Technological Social Design. These are the people who must accept the responsibility for what this ability requires of them. Cooperation! This is our starting point right now. Regardless of the particular method chosen for the last leg of the journey toward an intelligent society, cooperation is essential, and the time to start that phase is the day before yesterday.

Is Economic Recovery Possible? From: 1992 - The future looks grim. For many this grim future has already begun.

Needed - A Mental Revolution: From 1996 - For the first time in the history of mankind, human knowledge has become sufficient to determine the physical characteristics required to implement the world's first intelligently directed society. History will record this event as the greatest human achievement of the 20th century.

It is such defining missionary zeal (sensed in Kunstler's writing on cities and suburbia fused in with the oil shock) that operates in that cross over space between ideology and science.

A detailed read of such things is a must if we are to begin making sense of anything Peak in out times.