The Axis of
Hypermobility
Speed Kills Places & (mostly foreign) People
Our serious addiction to hypermobility, regardless of the many destructive downsides, is made horrifyingly obvious by the fact that we are about to go with fire and sword even further into foreign lands to ensure supplies of the one thing very few of us are prepared to do without. Nay, not even a wee bit less!
Price of Addiction ### to Foreign Oil |
Pipelinistan must be 'stabilised', Iraq de-horned
and 'democratised'; watch out Iran and Korea; meanwhile the atrocity
of Palestine continues while we all 'pass by on the other side';
there are few Samaritans, it seems.
All this so we can enjoy
the benefits of the global economy - make no mistake about it, the
global economy runs on oil, lots of it. The only way we can enjoy
mangetout in January is by jet, flying in on cheap, untaxed oil. And
almost everything else we don't grow comes to us stinking of diesel.
And local folk, from farmers to woodcutters to grocers and bakers and
ironmongers go out of business, or are bought out and the mangetout
and mahogany just keep coming. Or we can order it all from the
internet - at least then we won't need to use the car so much!
Ah,
the car, the chalice of individual freedom and independence! The
alarming thing about the fuel tax revolt two years ago was the
emergence of a perception that individual global mobility is some
sort of inalienable birthright. That truly is a new thing under the
sun.
It's another sad indication of the addictive nature of
the affliction. Carried to its logical end, each person is entitled
to an individual spacesuit with full climate control, stereo sound,
telecommunications links, food & fuel ports, etc. Total
independence (from other folk, neighbours) and total dependence (upon
the providers of hookups and supplies and a source of money to pay
for it all)
If we think feeding nine billion is going to be
problematic, try supplying nine billion individual mobility units.
Maybe they can do without housing or clean air....
And in aid
of what? So we can rush around from place to place without ever
having enough time to actually be anywhere, and the faster and
further we scurry, the more we need to ignore the places we are
passing through - the fewer the better (for them and us!)
Never
mind, we can go on an ecotour for a really cheap price, see some
fine, biodiverse place before the common herd spoils it, but
virtually every airport already has a Coke machine; most have a
McDonald's, and are surrounded by developments resultant from and
conditioned by the flow of overfunded assholes riding taxfree
jetfuel. And mobiles don't work!
Ivan Illich says folk in
other cultures spend less than a tenth of their 'active' time on
transit and we spend well above a third if you count all the hours
worked for the cash spent on the means of getting about as well as in
waiting rooms and traffic jams. Is that "quality of life?"
Does it improve with speed and distance? Henry Thoreau said the same
damn thing in 1854 about the trains: "I have learned that the
swiftest traveller is he that goes afoot."
If we were to
decide to use less fuel and shop locally, then that would be
meaningful, but it wouldn't be an argument for lower fuel prices and
wars to secure them, would it? It would be an argument for ensuring
local economies survive and an opportunity to spend time relating to
our home places and our neighbours.
We're running pretty
damned fast, but I wonder if we have much idea of where to.
My
pessimism evaporates whenever afoot in the forest. Care for the woods
and the vegetables. Slow down and enjoy the journey. And hope we can
somehow avoid war.
Brought into
right relationships with the wilderness,
man would see that his
appropriation of Earth's resources
beyond his personal needs
would only bring imbalance
and beget ultimate loss and poverty
for all.
-- John
Muir
Yours Aye
Ed Iglehart
Peace, God's mercy
and blessings be upon you. (and all of us)
Assalaam 'alaikum wa
rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuhu.
John Muir:
John Muir Henry Thoreau:
Thoreau: Ivan Illich:
Ivan Illich Wendell:
Wendell Berry
946 More words in your ear:
946 More words People & cars:
Homo Encapsulata
Prepared for the winterspring 2003 issue of Reforesting Scotland
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Restoring the land and communities of
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Reforesting Scotland