On Thu, 11 Dec 2008 07:37:30 -0500 "George Adams" <[email protected]> writes:
"I take the liberty of summarizing one of his [Jeff Vail's] points because I happen to agree with it: World class urban centers "work" only because they permit an organized competition for the resources of the surrounding countryside and, nowadays, the whole globalized world economy. They may increase the mean wealth of their inhabitants but not the median well being of the collection of "hinterland" residents whose resources they tap. Because such urban centers must compete, they are only viable under regimes of economic expansion and thus inherently unsustainable." I have found Jeff Vail intriguing and instructive on a number of subjects of concern to this forum. http://www.jeffvail.net/ Derrick Jensen makes the same points that George summarized more directly in terms of power relations between urban centers, which characterize civilization as we know it, and their peripheries. To summarize his argument and conclusions he draws: 1. Civilization as we know it subsists in the form of urban centers extracting resources from peripheries. Concentration of resources = concentration of power, leading to resource wars, leading to more extraction: a feedback loop of seemingly endless growth. 2. Traditional (read rural) communities do not give up their resources except by violence done to them, or its threat. 3. "Our way of living - industrial civilization - is based upon, requires, and would collapse very quickly without persistent and widespread violence." This can never be sustainable (as the history of civilizations suggests, with over two dozen major civilizations eventually collapsing since the advent of agriculture, civilization's enabling event). Civilization's inherent violence to its resource base, both in people and land, make its downfall inevitable. Patchworks of small human communities will replace civilization. If Jensen sounds radical, he is, but he is also funny and compelling, as in his video discussions on themes in his two volume work, Endgame http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8649250863235826256 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6557057252892383895&q=Derrick+Jen sen&hl=en What Jensen and Vail both reveal, is that civilization is inherently hierarchical. Vail proposes a horizontal alternative that might be more sustainable, a model he bases on the structure of a Tuscan hill town http://www.jeffvail.net/2006/04/envisioning-hamlet-economy-topology-of.ht ml Karl North Northland Sheep Dairy, Freetown, New York USA www.geocities.com/northsheep/ "Mother Nature never farms without animals" - Albert Howard "Pueblo que canta no morira" - Cuban saying ____________________________________________________________ Save $15 on Flowers and Gifts from FTD! Shop now at http://offers.juno.com/TGL1141/?u=http://www.ftd.com/17007 _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
