Arrogant Windbag…or Genius?
Continuing in our retro-video theme, I was watching a video on the Anti-Advertising Agency website today that was excerpted from a TEDspeaks conference from 2004.
This is relevant for today because this mindset is ever present. I sometimes wonder if it is necessary to balance out the super capitalists.
James Howard Kunstler talks about cities that bring “despair” to people just by living in them, because they’re dreary and dark. He talks about the “ugliness of our everyday environments in America is entropy made visible” and “We can’t overestimate the amount of despair we are generating with places like this.”
“We have to do better if we’re going to continue the project of civilization in america”
Then, to demonstrate his point he shows a picture on this big huge electronic screen (sponsored by…whom I wonder…LOL)
“By the way” he says, “This doesn’t help”
“Nobody’s having a better day down here because of that”
You know what, I just want to let everyone on earth know…I think it does help.
Growing up, we had two water towers in my town. They both had smiley faces and one had a bow tie. I grew up knowing that Mr. and Mrs. Water Tower were watching over me. Not in some messed-up 1984 “how many fingers am I holding up” kind of way, either.
Others in my town felt that way too, and it is one of the strongest memories anyone from my town has if they grew up there.
So, I get that this wannabe once-dirty-hippie wants to tell me that an automobile slum creates despair and angst and all kinds of other bad non-hippie things, but you know what – so do the utopia seeking normalcy-bashing anti-corporate know-it-alls that converged in Montery, California to attend this circlejerk of academia.
More degrees than sense – more ideas than hard work.
What kind of utopia can that possibly create? One where we’re all farmers? I can’t imagine James Howard Kunstler milking a cow and pulling a plow. I mean, he’d have to pull the plow himself, right? He’s probably an animal activist! He can’t let the poor horse with feelings pull it!
How can you grow your own crops if you need machinery at all? You can’t because those big nasty oil conglomerates have a hand in your tractor. Or your lawn mower. Unless you use an electric lawnmower, but the electricity company uses oil, and creates pollution.
It’s so easy to be high and mighty when you’re sitting in a conference room full of people who think like you, and ignore the rules that are already in place and rail against the system for change, when the change you want is pretty much impossible.
Change is not impossible, just not this overhyped scrabble-20-point-word-fest of everyone talking about how bad industry is. Well…industry may not be all that great, but where did your pants come from? Because unless you’re birthing the sheep that you grow and sheer and weave and sew into your very own pair of pants, you’re contributing to the problem, not the solution.
“Technosis externality clusterf**k.” He says that phrase. Out loud. No one laughs at him or stands up, points, and says “NO!” I have to ask myself…why not? Are we all so conditioned to accepting four syllable words as truth that this phrase was actually taken in and laughed at as if it were an amazing punchline? I was baffled.
On the bright side if you watch to the end he says something really deep about how to refer to oneself, “Stop referring to yourself as consumers. A consumer is different than a citizen.” That’s a really good point. He even talks about being a good neighbor.
Sadly, this is the shortest part of the whole presentation.
Maybe he doesn’t want to go back to farming and utopia. He just wants to go back to the neighborhoods and traditional Main Street that existed right after WWII.
Wouldn’t that be a parking nightmare. Unless we’re all supposed to walk. Or take bikes. I don’t know. Ultimately it was many big words, and few words with real meaning. A lot of explanation without ever telling me what the question was he is answering.
If you have a few minutes, watch the video and let me know what you think. Is it deep? Is it poignant? Is it crap? I just don’t know…
Technorati Tags: tedspeaks-2004, urban-utopia, suburban-sprawl, confusion, academia, happy-face-water-towers
Comments
2 Responses to “Arrogant Windbag…or Genius?”
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Yep – I’m a Joiner!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man
I know what a straw man argument is, but I didn’t make an argument…I didn’t like the presentation, I didn’t like the presenter, and I was hoping someone out there would help me understand which he was….windbag or genius.
I was actually weaving two topics together. Is this guy a windbag AND does he make any kind of a valid point with his over-the-top wannabe edgy style?
The problem is, when you’re talking to groups of people and you’re proposing something, it doesn’t matter how good the argument is if you come across as a pompous ass.
And that’s just the way perception works. Has nothing to do with the Logic 101 class I took in college where we learned the straw man argument LOL.
But way to hide behind Wikipedia. Such an academia move, I had to approve the comment!