We
live in the best of all possible worlds. Indeed, we export our way of life
zealously to those who haven’t yet tasted its rewards, especially to residents
of China, India and Brazil, the big markets as we now know them. When systemic
problems arise at home, our leaders use the tested axioms of free-market
prosperity to solve them: privatize, or use government funds to pay corporate
campaign contributors to help solve the crisis. In California, as everyone
knows, we have energy and transportation crises. So, our corporate and
government masterminds will finance more freeway building and increase the
number of cars on the road. Each morning, I hear the sounds of bulldozers and
heavy road building equipment; a freeway under construction just 200 yards from
my house. What a divine blend those large internal combustion engines make each
morning with birds chirping and leaf blowers chattering. The clouds of dust that
settle over the grass and flowers, that seep into nostrils and eyes well, a
small price to pay for progress.
The
new freeway after all will facilitate automobile commuters’ journeys in their
seventy miles trek from San Bernadino to downtown Los Angeles. Tens of thousands
of three and four bedroom units — as houses are now called — are currently
under construction in suburban communities east of LA. What’s a few hundred
thousand more people in an area that already contains some 12 million! The
region has a dubious supply of water, mostly stolen, or borrowed, from other
regions and, of course, suffers from rolling blackouts. But development, as such
construction is euphemistically know, pushes ever on. The great philosopher,
Rush Limbaugh, addresses my concerns about noise and smog, which accompany a
transportation system based on the divinely mandated “one passenger per car”
formula. Limbaugh, like the other conservative commentators that nearly
monopolize AM talk radio, doesn’t believe the reports about global warming, but
he does believe that God intended us to own as many SUVs as our hearts desire.
To Limbaugh, public transportation smacks of socialism. Besides, Southern
Californians have learned to love their cars and tolerate torturous conditions
daily to maintain the car as their sole means of transportation — if not their
closest friend. Many in the southland have even given pet names to their cars
and SUVs.
A
recently published study in the Los Angeles Times shows that LA commuters
averaged 56 hours last year sitting immobile — not even inching along — on our
world famous freeways. Residents of other car-loving cities spent a few hours
less in these situations. This is institutionalized loneliness. Imagine spending
the equivalent of two entire days plus one full working shift sitting on a
freeway, exhaust fumes pouring out of thousands of vehicles and seeping into you
car! But listening to books on tape may help. The study didn’t say whether
tuning in to Limbaugh generates road rage as he berates the long-gone Clintons
and argues loudly and belligerently in favor of the rich pay8ing ever less in
taxes.
Lkimbaugh and the wise men who offer freeways and cars to meet transportation
needs, offer solutions to the energy crisis as well. As the president, a
well-known free-trader, announced: we must drill for oil off shore and in the
virgin wilderness. If God hadn’t us to drill in those remote places, why would
he have put the oil there in the first place, intimates Limbaugh. Since we
export and import almost everything else, why not import more oil. Let’s not
even talk about semi-socialist endeavors like wind and solar power or other non
fossil fuel energy sources.
So, W
plans to solve the energy crisis in a multifold manner, mainly by lowering taxes
for the rich the truly clever will figure this out — and drilling in virgin
areas. And, presumably, he will help diffuse the transportation crisis by
encouraging Congress to spend ever more money building freeways to accommodate
more cars. Air pollution and smog that ensue from such solutions — well, use
Visine to deal with the effects of smog. It does actually give slight temporary
help for the inflammation caused by the dust in my eyes. I’m sure there’s some
product to buy for my nose as well, and I can spray the tops of the flowes and
remove the daily film from their petals as well.
Since
our very system depends upon perpetual growth driven by the government’s
incentives to the private sector – we call it development our leaders don’t dare
mention building a public rail system or God forbid limiting growth. Our system
assumes that each individual should have the ability to buy as many cars, houses
and boats as he or she pleases, regardless of race, color or creed. Eventually,
the Chinese, Indians and Brazilians will also learn these lessons, as they adopt
our way of life. Then, they too can live in the best of all possible worlds.
Saul Landau is the Director of Digital Media and International Outreach
Programs for the College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences
