Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Complacency and the Last Days of Oil Suburbia

roachboy · 10-12-2006, 08:10 AM

the us could change its transportation paradigm if there was adequate pressure to do so--for example, the present car-oriented model was not the result of "market forces" but rather was a function of explicit policy choices made in order to promote a variety of goals---the financial interests of automobile industries, petroleum industries (which in general represented a different faction of the financial elite than those who had benefitted from railroads across the last half of the 19th century)---and an internal politics rooted in property ownership---suburbanisation presupposed modular house construction cheap and available credit--this model was a significant driver in the rationalization of fordist-style mass production, with its standardized products, etc.--it was also fundamental in transforming class conflict in america--think about the differences in class conflict from, say, the middle 1930s when compared with the late 1950s or across the 1960s--fundamentally different social groups mobilized in fundamentally different ways---remember that the movement against the war in vietnam was opposed by lots of working-class people, and this is as good an index of the magnitude of the effects of the politics of property ownership as any i can think of.

the suburban model is wholly tied to the logic of fordism, which was the kind of capitalism you see fully operational in the states by the middle 1950s--it did pretty well for a fairly long period--by the 1970s, it was coming unravelled and now we are in the middle of the transformation of the capitalist landscape into something else. we call it globalization, but that is in the main simply a word--the us has not adapted, not caught up with the reality its own organizational mutations have been fashioning.

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there are many features of the politics of folk like ustwo that will become funny again once they return to a richly deserved cultural oblivion. like the inability to think about infrastructure---in no. 20 you see it again--the suburbs were made possible by a massive transformation of infrastructure and the new deal was the primary instrument of that transformation. that means that the burbs would not exist as they do in the us without the sustained, concerted action of the state---once that infrastructure is in place, then it becomes possible for shallow arguments that take infrastructure as given like mountains and rocks and oceans--and from there, notions of market forces uber alles begin to make at least some sense.

on the other hand, if the present economic reconfiguration moves to the point where you get significant legitimacy trouble for the state following on its inability to play a coherent role in making system adjustments to new forms of capitalist organization, the revamping of transportation infrastructure==and remodelling of the politics of space in the states--is a vast public works project that could be used for all kinds of ends.

it seems to me that the situation referenced in the op is a signal of transition.

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the suburban model is curious. to my mind, it is outmoded--its reliance on automobiles and by extension of petroleum is just one of the model's vulnerabilities, but in the end that will probably the the driver of its mutation. the entire model seems bizarre though: the rejection of public space, the confinement of people to dysfunctional nuclear families each in its individual box which is the same as every other individual box--the cultural vacuum that is most suburbs---no papers, no public life, no bookstores etc.---the centrality of television as mode of socialibility and communication--the centrality of church and school-based organizations in stabilizing social life practically---the deep and pervasive boredom of these places---you have seen a real demographic shift over the past 20 years of younger people away from these voids and back into the cities--and while in the cities, you see diverse transportation modes--cars, publc transit, bikes, etc.

what i do not know about really is what happens when this cadre has kids, and the extent to which they head back into the suburban vacuum because--well---if another way of seeing the burbs is as a mechanism for class segregation (and so as an expression of a particular type of class conflict)---then the explicit driver would be the school system--but behind that, who knows what motivates folk to opt back into the vacuum.

i tend to see the suv phenomenon as an expression of a sense of bourgeois anxiety---worried about the model and its functionality?--surround yourself with a few tons of metal, insulate yourself from the world, turn up the sound system and you get to sit in your own stasis module and drive through spaces that look like pictures. can't think about the future without getting nervous? your huge stasis module comes complete with satellite radio that offers you a legion of channels full of "classic rock" that functions as a kind of reassuring soundtrack--everything really is the same as the 1970s, not to worry.

it'll be interesting to see what happens when the us begins to hit the wall, when its 1950s-based mode of residential organization starts to become even more obviously dysfunctional.
the bush administration will look like a huge failed attempt to ward off change through military means.
the right will perhaps have scuttled back under the cultural rock whence it came.
and perhaps the states will begin to fashion other ways of living and moving about.

meanwhile, i imagine ustwo in a pink polo shirt, khakis and topsiders locking himself in his vast (lime green) suv, shutting the windows, turning up the 70s easy listening channel on the satellite receiver (perhaps listening to the collected oeuvre of bread) and just sitting there, kinda chanting to himself--NOTHING REAL IS HAPPENING IT IS ALL BASICALLY THE SAME NO NEED TO THINK TOO MUCH IT IS ALL BASICALLY THE SAME MARKET FORCES WILL LET ME UNLOCK MY DOOR SOME DAY---while "guitar man" breaks into is tepid "emotional" section...
and that will be even more ludicrous then than it is now.

10-12-2006, 08:10 AM	#21 (permalink)
roachboy Super Moderator Location: essex ma	the us could change its transportation paradigm if there was adequate pressure to do so--for example, the present car-oriented model was not the result of "market forces" but rather was a function of explicit policy choices made in order to promote a variety of goals---the financial interests of automobile industries, petroleum industries (which in general represented a different faction of the financial elite than those who had benefitted from railroads across the last half of the 19th century)---and an internal politics rooted in property ownership---suburbanisation presupposed modular house construction cheap and available credit--this model was a significant driver in the rationalization of fordist-style mass production, with its standardized products, etc.--it was also fundamental in transforming class conflict in america--think about the differences in class conflict from, say, the middle 1930s when compared with the late 1950s or across the 1960s--fundamentally different social groups mobilized in fundamentally different ways---remember that the movement against the war in vietnam was opposed by lots of working-class people, and this is as good an index of the magnitude of the effects of the politics of property ownership as any i can think of. the suburban model is wholly tied to the logic of fordism, which was the kind of capitalism you see fully operational in the states by the middle 1950s--it did pretty well for a fairly long period--by the 1970s, it was coming unravelled and now we are in the middle of the transformation of the capitalist landscape into something else. we call it globalization, but that is in the main simply a word--the us has not adapted, not caught up with the reality its own organizational mutations have been fashioning. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- there are many features of the politics of folk like ustwo that will become funny again once they return to a richly deserved cultural oblivion. like the inability to think about infrastructure---in no. 20 you see it again--the suburbs were made possible by a massive transformation of infrastructure and the new deal was the primary instrument of that transformation. that means that the burbs would not exist as they do in the us without the sustained, concerted action of the state---once that infrastructure is in place, then it becomes possible for shallow arguments that take infrastructure as given like mountains and rocks and oceans--and from there, notions of market forces uber alles begin to make at least some sense. on the other hand, if the present economic reconfiguration moves to the point where you get significant legitimacy trouble for the state following on its inability to play a coherent role in making system adjustments to new forms of capitalist organization, the revamping of transportation infrastructure==and remodelling of the politics of space in the states--is a vast public works project that could be used for all kinds of ends. it seems to me that the situation referenced in the op is a signal of transition. ----------------------- the suburban model is curious. to my mind, it is outmoded--its reliance on automobiles and by extension of petroleum is just one of the model's vulnerabilities, but in the end that will probably the the driver of its mutation. the entire model seems bizarre though: the rejection of public space, the confinement of people to dysfunctional nuclear families each in its individual box which is the same as every other individual box--the cultural vacuum that is most suburbs---no papers, no public life, no bookstores etc.---the centrality of television as mode of socialibility and communication--the centrality of church and school-based organizations in stabilizing social life practically---the deep and pervasive boredom of these places---you have seen a real demographic shift over the past 20 years of younger people away from these voids and back into the cities--and while in the cities, you see diverse transportation modes--cars, publc transit, bikes, etc. what i do not know about really is what happens when this cadre has kids, and the extent to which they head back into the suburban vacuum because--well---if another way of seeing the burbs is as a mechanism for class segregation (and so as an expression of a particular type of class conflict)---then the explicit driver would be the school system--but behind that, who knows what motivates folk to opt back into the vacuum. i tend to see the suv phenomenon as an expression of a sense of bourgeois anxiety---worried about the model and its functionality?--surround yourself with a few tons of metal, insulate yourself from the world, turn up the sound system and you get to sit in your own stasis module and drive through spaces that look like pictures. can't think about the future without getting nervous? your huge stasis module comes complete with satellite radio that offers you a legion of channels full of "classic rock" that functions as a kind of reassuring soundtrack--everything really is the same as the 1970s, not to worry. it'll be interesting to see what happens when the us begins to hit the wall, when its 1950s-based mode of residential organization starts to become even more obviously dysfunctional. the bush administration will look like a huge failed attempt to ward off change through military means. the right will perhaps have scuttled back under the cultural rock whence it came. and perhaps the states will begin to fashion other ways of living and moving about. meanwhile, i imagine ustwo in a pink polo shirt, khakis and topsiders locking himself in his vast (lime green) suv, shutting the windows, turning up the 70s easy listening channel on the satellite receiver (perhaps listening to the collected oeuvre of bread) and just sitting there, kinda chanting to himself--NOTHING REAL IS HAPPENING IT IS ALL BASICALLY THE SAME NO NEED TO THINK TOO MUCH IT IS ALL BASICALLY THE SAME MARKET FORCES WILL LET ME UNLOCK MY DOOR SOME DAY---while "guitar man" breaks into is tepid "emotional" section... and that will be even more ludicrous then than it is now. __________________ a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite