Starting the Conversation: Cities

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Sunday, April 26, 2009

James Howard Kunstler on the Tragedy of Suburbia

Kunstler can be so cynical and rude, but he tells it as he sees it. His passion shines through as he implores us to promote communities "worth caring about".

Some Favourite Quotes

The Miracle is to Walk on Earth. ~ Zen Master Lin Chi

Possession isn't nine-tenths of the law, it's nine-tenths of the problem. ~ John Lennon

Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist. ~ Kenneth Boulding

The steep ride up the and down the energy curve is the most abnormal thing that has ever happened in human history. Most of human history is a no-growth situation. Our culture is built on growth and that phase of human history is almost over and we are not prepared for it. Our biggest problem is not the end of our resources. That will be gradual. Our biggest problem is a cultural problem. We don't know how to cope with it. ~ M. King Hubbert

Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants. ~ Epicurus

Three large spoonfuls of crude oil contain about the same amount of energy as eight hours of human manual labor. When we fill our car with gas, we're pouring into the tank the energy equivalent of about two years of human manual labor. ~ Thomas Homer Dixon

Every corner of the public psyche is canvassed by some of the most talented citizens to see if the desire for some merchandisable product can be cultivated. ~ John Kenneth Galbraith

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to leave alone. ~ Henry David Thoreau

There’s enough on this planet for everyone’s needs but not for everyone’s greed. ~ Mahatma Ghandi

What a man believes upon grossly insufficient evidence is an index into his desires — desires of which he himself is often unconscious. If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way. ~ Bertrand Russell, Proposed Roads to Freedom

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it… Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate…. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; Only love can do that. ~ Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Sometime, somewhere you take something to be the truth. If you cling to it so much, when the truth comes in person and knocks at your door, you will not open it. ~ Buddha

Guarding knowledge is not a good way to understand. Understanding means to throw away your knowledge. You have to be able to transcend your knowledge the way people climb a ladder. If you are on the fifth step of a ladder and think that you are very high, there is no hope for you to climb to the sixth. The technique is to release. The Buddhist way of understanding is always letting go of our views and knowledge in order to transcend. This is the most important teaching. That is why I use the image of water to talk about understanding. Knowledge is solid; it blocks the way of understanding. Water can flow, can penetrate. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, explaining the above quote from Buddha

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on him not understanding it. ~Upton Sinclair

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. ~ Benjamin Franklin

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. ~ George Santayana, The Life of Reason

It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle. ~ Ernest Hemingway

I'd put my money on solar energy… I hope we don't have to wait 'til oil and coal run out before we tackle that.
Thomas Edison, in conversation with Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone, March 1931.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.~ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist. ~ Dom Helder Camara

Evolution doesn't bend its rules for anyone, not even a talkative mystical primate. The human plague is following its preordained path, and the final outcome is likely to be very grim indeed. ~ Reg Morrison

A Native American grandfather was talking to his grandson about how he felt about a tragedy. He said, “I feel as if I have two wolves fighting in my heart. One wolf is the vengeful, angry, violent one. The other wolf is the loving, compassionate one.” The grandson asked him, “Which wolf will win the fight in your heart?” The grandfather answered, “The one I feed.” A native American Indian story

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Sunday, April 26, 2009

James Howard Kunstler on the Tragedy of Suburbia

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