Posted May 14th 2007 5:42PM

James Howard Kunstler calls suburban sprawl "the greatest misallocation of resources the world has ever known." His arguments bring a new lens to urban development, drawing clear connections between physical spaces and cultural vitality.

Source - TED.com

Kunsler

Posted May 15th 2007 8:36AM

One of the founders of Technocracy is often quoted by people like Kunsler. Matthew Simmons, James Kunsler, Noam Chomsky - all people reputed by some to have keen intellects, who know about peak oil, without knowing much about the person who came up with the concept, and what else Hubbert was involved in beyond what they can mine for their crackpot theory`s of social control. -Kunslers nightmare vision of the world under a corporate, one world fascist, socialist collapsed state, plays into the hands of fear-monger's. It feeds Americas two controlling principles, FEAR, AND CONSUMPTION.
Now I will tell you a little secret... Kunsler, Chomsky, Seymour Hersh, Amy Goodman, Bill Moyers, all the darlings of the pseudo-intellectuals are doing what they are doing for money, so the last thing they really want is real change - or change is o.k., as long as they maintain their cherished illusions, that is their bank accounts - and the status and prestige of being honored in a misinformed brain washed society. So in their own way these people are merely mouthpieces for the powers that be. They do not get at the core problem, that being our Price System.
Kunsler is a disinformation specialist. " spilling their blood in Iraq for areas that are 'not worth caring about'" --- What the hell has that got to do with anything~!~ beyond bullshit. Sounds like a Neo-con.
" A nation that will be worth defending." Again what the hell is this guy talking about ?
Kunsler has made a ton of money trying to scare people, and he has been successful. He is a perfect example of a 'fake' intellectual.

Peak Oil

Posted May 15th 2007 10:20AM

Though in this presentation Kunstler mostly talks about the atrocious nature of suburban auto-centric design, he is in fact a peak oil alarmist. I find that most peak oil alarmists are borderline, if not full-fledged, primitivists who seem to be looking forward to the destruction of our current state of civilization and the return of a “simpler” subsistence farming lifestyle. This prospective is infuriatingly ridiculous. It is fueled by a blind romanticization of primitive tribal/ pre-industrial culture and completely overlooks the intense hardships endured under those conditions. It isn’t hard to see what life is like in that state, simply visit any pre-industrial third world country and observe the malnutrition, squalor, child mortality, and chronic illness that manifest without modern healthcare and other amenities.

Primitivists are the enemy. Due to a lack of problem solving skills they are embracing a fail state and calling it a solution. It’s the same retarded ideology most Communists adhere to. The belief that basic remedial labor is more fulfilling than industrial labor and that people live happier lives when living on a smaller scale. Of course this isn’t exactly true so Communist have to resort to reeducation camps that force people to work and censor information coming into their country to maintain their delusional small scale prospective.

Better would be a real solution. Redesign our cities to cater towards humans, not cars. Something akin to Jacque Fresco's radial city design. Abolish our ridiculous price system and replace it with something practical like energy accounting. We need to make efficiency and sustainability our primary concerns and achieve these goals at any cost.

Kunsler.

Posted May 15th 2007 4:09PM

Excellent post Richard. You cut to the heart of the issue. Its funny I read a piece by Kunsler about how he would like to live after the return of a 'labor' collapsed society in the aftermath of 'Peak Oil' when in his books he projects that the mass of people will turn into agrarian serfs, and he said he wanted to maybe have a little paper and write in a rural survivable area. Ha ha. The idiot. As said this fellow has made some excellent money peddling bullshit.
-No, we do not need the damn oil. We could make oil if need be. Thermodepolymerization or the enzymatic process work just fine. Besides we are the third largest oil exporter in the world. We also import 30% of our oil. Does that make sense? It does if you want to make money.
And yes the Anarcho/primitivists really make me sick. I have debated people like Jason Gadesky and Jeff Vail, and they are so naive about the reality of thinking and glamorizing life in 10.000 bc. that it is actually pretty comic. They talk about drinking out of streams.
Btw, most all of the Primitivist subscribe to 'Tainter' a person who like Fresco took just about all of the interesting things they claim to 'know' out of the Technocracy Study Course, and twisted that information to present it differently, and no where near as creatively.