Thursday, January 26, 2006

Where not to live

I watched the End of Suburbia a while ago, and man, is that one bleak movie. Sometimes the truth ain't so pretty, though. Most people like to keep their head in the sand until the train hits them. (Nice mixed metaphor, eh?) And the media is more than willing to accomodate them. As Jello Biafra says in the Special Bulletin: "All sports broadcasts will proceed as normal.". We'll keep driving our gigantic SUVs, owning 4000+ square foot homes that place us 1-2 hours away from our jobs...oil is a renewable energy source, no?

Since they mention that what is the current outer ring of the suburbs/exurbs of metropolitan areas will become some of the new slum areas when the effects of Peak Oil begin to have an impact, I began to wonder where those might be in the Denver area. Highlands Ranch comes to mind, as do a lot of the bedroom communities in this area. But after thinking about that, I began to wonder if almost all of flyover country might become a wasteland?

Like the rest of the nation, I feel like sticking my head on the sand on this one, and hoping the elites have some grand vision they just haven't mentioned to us. I imagine we'll have a few more Iraq-style invasions before the reign of the oil-burning internal combustion engine is over...hardly a long-term solution, but I'm sure that's the way it will go. It's pretty clear that if some of these predictions are true, we are going to have a "paradigm shift" like few ever experienced.

Comments:
Roger that, I definitely adhere to the sentiment that things will get worse before they get better.

This flick is noted and reminds me of Dark Days:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0235327/

A cool NINdie flick depicting the lifestyles of transients living below NYC's subway system.

TGIF Penn.
 
I've actually seen Dark Days. A very engaging movie. Having DJ Shadow for some of the soundtrack was a nice touch, too. I remember being fascinated by C.H.U.D. when I was a young-un - I kept waiting for one to pop up. ;)
 
Oh, and the bummer about the End of Suburbia is that it doesn't seem to try to offer any way out...with the exception of the mention of New Urbanism. I think their intent may have been to kick people into wakefulness, however, and not give a sunshine and roses presentation.
 
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