Holding on to a Dying Way of Life

New from me in @AmerCompass - the Trump admin was right to rescind AFFH in full, and fight for working class family homes in the suburbs. https://t.co/YAFzOmwiZL

— Rachel Bovard (@rachelbovard) September 3, 2020

To Love Others

CWR Dispatch: Loneliness, disconnection, and our divine vocation by Brian Jones
Without a reference to human nature, and the specific inclination to live in community as essential for its flourishing, the prescriptive for civic decline can fall on deaf ears.

The reality of our social breakdown seemed to surround us on all sides. Our cities, towns, and neighborhoods have been built in ways that do not appear as though they were designed for human life and flourishing. We have even constructed tall fences around our homes, along with an abundance of trees to surround us in a sort of military fortress. Front porches were once an essential feature of homes, so as to incline us towards fulfilling our vocation as neighbors, and good stewards of those places where we live. These have given way to the back patio, that place of refuge which has conditioned citizens to seek to be removed from others, detached as a further means for celebrating our individual liberty. How many of us actually know the people who live on our street, especially those right next door?

Welcome to suburbia. A look at the social and political factors at work behind the destruction of community would probably be too much for a short internet essay, but they do merit an examination so that Christians know what the causes were and from which they need to be on guard.

[M]uch of the literature that accurately describes the decline of community in American civic life tends to lack a deeper explanation as to why human beings are in need of association at an ontological or metaphysical level.

The author doesn't develop this in the direction of communion ecclesiology and personhood as relation right away, but in the direction of apprenticeship in love [agape]. Later he talks about imitating God and writes  "Human sociality is meant to be an imitation of the Trinitarian Sociality"

Kunstler

Legalise Freedom Interview with James Howard Kunstler

Here

Cheap sugar is a health-killer. Cheap fossil fuel energy is a society-killer. It has also fueled the growth of the state.

More with James Howard Kunstler

An Interview with JHK

AmConMag: An Interview With James Howard Kunstler by Addison Del Mastro
America’s foremost critic of suburbia talks strip malls, environmentalism, and Christianity.

Life in Suburbia

The husband of the husband-wife managing team of the storage place passed away suddenly a month or two ago, and the wife decided
to move to Oregon. No forwarding address to which to send a condolence card, no announcement of a management change from the company or
of the death, and not much info from the new managers. Didn't ask if there will be a new manager moving into the residence or not.

This is the ugly reality of suburbia: you could live within 4 minutes of at least 4 high school friends or acquaintances and 3 church friends but never see them anywhere in the city or on the road.

The Heyday of Cheap Energy

Reminds me of...

Uhmerica - Thy Name is Sprawl

Joel Kotkin thinks you want to live in Houston. Here's why you don't.

Can suburbia be saved in California?

Given that we will have a severe drought this year, what sort of impact will water restrictions have on those people who have gardens and rely upon them for a substantial amount of their food? The question of whether suburbia can be salvaged in a post-peak oil age has been answered by various people - have those who claim it can be looked at the question of water? Without taking Divine Providence into account, What is the carrying capacity of California if these drought conditions are the norm for several decades or more? Are there too many people living in the Bay Area for it to be sustainable?

Would state/federal assistance and subsidies be given to all farmers and gardeners equally? Or would Industrial Ag be the main beneficiary, because the national welfare is at steak. (California produces much of the food that the rest of the country eats, after all.) What would be the response of state and local governments if more people had to resort to gardening in order to survive? (Though it is probably more likely that the on-going exodus from California would increase in size first.)

Peter Blair on Community

The Real Case Against the Suburbs, or, How Ought Christians to Think About the Common Good? by Peter Blair

He does not give a definition of the common good, but he does contrast a living community with a living arrangement that is manifestly marked by the absence of community.

What Future for the Big Cities?

Cities and Suburbs in the Energy Descent: Thinking in Scenarios by Karl North (EB)

Suburbia, the Soul Killer

Hyperbole, but still...

Why Suburbia Really Is Affecting Your Spiritual Life (single) - via Mere Comments.
Interview by Joseph Gorra, Christianity Today

Baker Academic

Two Matthew on Suburbs

Matthew Cantirino, Get Off My Lawn and Matthew Schmitz, Deregulating the Suburbs

On Friday afternoon I was walking near my old jr. high (a middle school now), which was having a dance that evening. I was curious as to what music was going to be played. Back in my day, we had some pop music, but also some "alternative" stuff - typical '80s music. What did I hear? A lot of ghetto music, along with what passes for contemporary pop -- music you might hear at an [import] auto show, but now being played in a middle school. Plenty of bump and grind music; that sort of physical contact probably isn't allowed at school, but why not? The music is already corrupting the young. From what I saw, there is no longer any dress code. I think the dances used to be semi-formal when I was at the school - dress shirt and slacks, coat, and maybe a tie too. I could be wrong about the tie. But now, anything goes. I saw a group of boys walking along the field towards the dance, and they looked like wannabe thugs with their ghetto wear. I bet there were no dresses on the girls, though some may have been wearing some form of a skirt. This is supposed to be a good school in a middle-class suburb. It would be too much to expect the school to step in and teach them something about traditional dances (along with the rituals and values they represent). No square dancing here. How can you trust the degenerates in charge of the moral formation of students? "FAIL." And what do the parents think of this? Those who allow their children to go to such dances can be called permissive.

I once was in a math classroom in the 95-6 school year. Standards of behavior had fallen, as the students were so talkative during the lesson. We would never have done that in our day. What a let-down.



VFR: A dress code and its effects, 1957 - there is a mention of
Diana West.

Items of Interest, 13 April 2012

In Honor of Mr. Jefferson's 270th Birthday
History.org

Arizona Governor Vetoes Sheriffs First Bill

Putting Defense Back into US Defense Policy
In These Times / By Jeffrey A. Winters - Wealth Defense Industry: The Real Reason America's Oligarchs Can Squeeze the Rest of Us


Judge Napolitano On Whether Zimmerman Can Get A Fair Trial: Move Players To Part Of FL With Less ‘Saturation’

H.L Mencken & Jack London: How to Pitch Editors, Agents and Book Publishers

Economics and Sustainability:
Is it Too Late for Sustainable Development?
Dennis Meadows thinks so. Forty years after his book The Limits to Growth, he explains why
By Megan Gambino

The ‘war on suburbia’ is a hoax by Greg Hanscom

Relocalization:
Ownership Matters: Gar Alperovitz on Co-ops and Employee Ownership
Going Local in an Age of Globalization (EB)
Design for surviving Vesuvius – Atamai, a permaculture village


Peak Oil:
The New EIA Oil Supply Data Confirms Your Peak Oil Fears
ODAC Newsletter - Apr 13

Catholic:
That Strange Mass the Pope Doesn't Like
It is the Mass according to the rite of the Neocatechumenal Way. Benedict XVI has ordered the congregation for the doctrine of the faith to examine it thoroughly. Its condemnation appears to be sealed
Dominican Rite and the Institute of St. Philip Neri
Holy Thursday in the Ambrosian Rite, Sormano
Finding Christ on the Metro

Diet and Health:
The 7th MovNat Principle: Efficient
Ask The Low-Carb Experts (Episode 13): ‘Low-Carbing Women & Weight Lifting’ | Dr. Cassandra Forsythe (mp3)
Karen De Coster, Benefits of the Paleo-Primal Lifestyle and Great Health

Minimalist Shoes:
BeNat Shoes First Look

Music:
Angaleena Presley Talks Pistol Annies, Shares Songwriting Stories

Abigail Washburn: Building US-China relations ... by banjo


An Ancient Chinese Instrument Is Making a Comeback by Sheila Melvin

Misc:
Rare Bay Bridge lightning strike captured on camera

Marc Anthony interpuso la demanda de divorcio contra Jennifer Lopez

TV:
Premiering on Sunday: NYC22
'NYC 22': Leelee Sobieski Takes On Police Role In CBS Drama
She got married? Or child out of wedlock?
CBS Actress Leelee Sobieski Describes NYC 22 On WCCO Radio
Leelee Sobieski Convincing in CBS Drama NYC 22 - Hunger Games Adds Diversity to Wes Bentley Credits

Items of Interest, 11 April 2011

Phillip Blond: Electing the Lords would undermine its value

On the Nationalist Myth: One Nation, Indivisible

Thomas Fleming, The Lesser Evil
Rival Campaigns React to Santorum's Withdrawal
James Antle, Rick Santorum was undone by his flaws, but exposed some of Romney's

Lies, Damned Lies, and the Pentagon’s Latest Budget Numbers by Winslow T. Wheeler


Tomgram: Engelhardt, The Smog of War

It's Sheriffs First in Arizona

Stop Locking Up So Many Kids by Matthew Feeney

The Tragedy of Democracy without Authority: A Reflection on Maritain and Thucydides by Jose Maria J. Yulo

James Antle, Getting it Right Next Time

Paul Craig Roberts, What is Obamacare

Economics and Relocalization:
Another Richard Heinberg interview. (mp3)

Exponential Economist Meets Finite Physicist by Tom Murphy (EB)

Census and Experts Confirm Death of Sprawl in US (PCI)

Rebecca Mayes ‘Turn the Lights Out’ video released


Study Shows Consumers Consider Local Produce More Important than Organic

Sustainability:
Will Modern Phoenix Outlast the Prehistorical Hohokam?

Marriage:
Allan Carlson, Love is Not Enough

So Much for Molly's Traditional Catholic Parents
Time to be Darcy with a vengeance. "Your family isn't good enough."

Feminism:
Sex, Lies, and Banking (via Oz Conservative)
An alpha female self-destructs.

Diet and Health:
The LLVLC Show (Episode 567): Dean Dwyer Helps You ‘Make Shift Happen’ In Weight And Health Pursuits (mp3)
MDA: The Importance of Pull-up Bar Training
Free the Animal: Guest Post: Your Backyard Kettlebell Workout



Music:
Miranda Lambert Hopes to Have a Career Like Loretta’s

Misc:
Sons of Guns: Jesse Opens Fire


20 Supporting Characters From '90s TV Shows Then And Now

Special Forces: Shooters and Thinkers

James Howard Kunstler: The tragedy of suburbia

via Delaware Liberal

I had planned to go to RSA this morning for another hike. By the time I woke up it was already dawn. (The sun was up at least 15 minutes earlier than the last time.) By the time I got there, just a little before 7, the parking lots were already full. So I drove off and took the car for a spin around Stevens Creek Reservoir and Saratoga. I don't know if it is worth it to get up early enough so that one can get a parking space. It would be nice if the open space preserves were more accessible by foot, or if the walking trails were extended down into suburbia. One can dream...