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NOWHERE_MAN

                                    October 30, 2001

James Howard Kunstler --
"The Geography of Nowhere" (1993)

A book full of anti-car,
anti-suburbia ranting little
of which I have any objection
to, though it leaves me
wondering (as I often do)
"who is the intended audience           Looking back to the
of this book?"                          introduction to the
                                        book, I see that he
Is it intended to persuade?             does admit that this
Who?  He provides support for           is a sermon for the
some of his points, but much of         choir:
it is just matter-of-opinion.
Is isn't likely to impress                 "I had a hunch that many other
someone who's psyched                      people find their surroundings as
themselves up to love suburban             distressing as I do my own, yet I
"convenience", or someone                  sensed too that they lack the
who's convinced themselves that            vocabulary to understand what is
suburbia is "what people want",            wrong with the places they ought
and any opposition is mere elitism...      to know best.  That is why I
                                           wrote this book."      p.10
A suburbanoid might find
some points here to raise
some doubts, but they'll                   Okay, fair enough.
find it tough sledding to                  Maybe I lacked some
get to them.                               of this vocabulary
                                           back in 1993 (or
(So maybe I should give that               maybe not).  Maybe
"persuasion" project a try                 there are some who
myself, huh?)                              still do.



                                      But something about this attitude
                                      seems a little depressing: an
                                      acknowledgement that you can't
                                      address the other side;
                                      they're just not listening.
                                      All you can do is firm up the
                                      position of someone who
                                      already agrees with you...




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