Reply #19: You don't have to see it as pessimistic [View All]

[starroute]

I know of science fiction stories going back to the 40's -- with their roots in thinking of the 20's and 30's -- that saw the collapse of our over-urbanized culture and return to a more decentralized system as a good thing. That dream got lost in the 50's rush to auto-based surburbs, but there's no reason not to recall it now.

The greatest problem with the farm and small-town life of the late 19th-early 20th century was how narrow and stultifying it was. Story after story of the period told of bright young people fleeing their home towns for the liveliness and challenge of the city. But the Internet offers an obvious answer to that problem of isolation and conformity. A de-urbanized society of the 21 century would be nothing like that of 100 years ago.

In just the last few days I've seen a story about how farmers are using online message boards to swap tips on planting and reviews of farm equipment, something on a push by one of the Democratic candidates (or was it Gore?) to get broadband extended to all the rural areas where the commercial companies don't want to go because it's unprofitable, and somebody writing about how he'd love to be working today on his grandfather's tomato farm that the family had to sell because they couldn't afford to keep it.

As I get older, I think of how much I'd rather spend my golden years living someplace where I could walk a few blocks at a leisurely pace to do my shopping and chat to the neighbors -- instead of being stuck in a retirement community like my father, where he can't even get to the library because he gave up driving and the community only provides transportation to the mall.

There's also the factor that if we're destined to live in a world where terrorism will always be the easy resort of the disenfranchised, a highly decentralized, target-poor environment will necessarily be the safest for us and our children.

The last 10,000 years have been marked by two major novelties -- cities and war. Both of them had to do with the accumulation of wealth. Together, they may have been a necessary step as we boot-strapped our way out of the hunter-gatherer stage. But both have also been the sources of great suffering, deprivation, and damage to the environment. If we now have the ability to move beyond them -- without giving up the advantages of creative ferment and ambitious collective projects that they made possible -- there is every reason to do so.