Perhaps 'hatred' is too strong a word. There are emotions there, I can't deny that. Come to think of it, I think "incredible desire to avoid" is more apt. Regardless, this is the first part of a series of entries where I discuss people that, for lack of better words, piss me off.
I can't begin to describe how much I detest those people who I describe as 'morons.' A moron is anyone who has the seeming total inability to see anything beyond what is smack in front of their face. They exist wholly in their own, tiny, little sliver of world and care nothing for that which goes on outside of it.
A great deal of my ire is focused on a group I have termed 'yuppies.' In fact, my usage of the word is entirely incorrect. Or, perhaps, those who were originally described as such outgrew their own cliche. Yuppies are people, in my neck of the woods, who are obsessed with the American Dream. The white picket fence, yard, two-car garage, 2.5 kids, and a dog. They are also prone to attemps at keeping up with the Joneses.
These are the people who, when a yard in the suburbs is acquired, slather it with chemicals to make sure their yard is the greenest. Local environment be damned. They are the people who bought increasingly ridiculous SUVs to haul around their one, screaming child. Other drivers be damned. They are the people who, after moving into rural areas, bitch about the rural area. Whether it be farms, poor roads, getting stuck behind tractors, or a downtown without a Starbucks, the area into which they moved is currently no good and primed for civilization. Other, extand inhabitants be damned.
What's worse is that the damage that follows them. Skyrocketing property values that drives out the original residents. Developers who are literally foaming at the mouth to build that Starbucks the yuppies want. Other developers who look at a pristine vista and bulldoze it to build a cookie-cutter development straight out of the movie Edward Scissorhands. I call those yuppie enclaves. Frequently, far outside of urban areas is farm land that's been there for generations.
But when the yuppies move in, that shit has got to go... literally. Most of these farms have manure which is just too foul for the tender olfactory nerves of our dear yupp-yupps. Not like they have to complain too long. Those rabid developers will usually buy up all the farm land to build enclaves and strip malls.
I know I sound like some insane, tree-hugging hippy, but I'm not, more on this in a minute. I also know that all of you have most likely deduced that the acid in my words probably comes from personal experience, and it does. I have borne witness to the sheer scale of the damage caused by urban sprawl. It has had a serious and immensely negative effect on my life, and because of it I hate those who catalyze it with a venom.
But I don't hate them just because they messed up my life. I hate them because, as a group, they are the most environmentally damaging thing facing this country, today. They are dangerous to absolutely everyone, including themselves. All you have to do is look at the numbers of SUVs rolled over by soccer moms trying to drive them like the car they gave up.
They consume a stunning amount of oil, use an absurd amount of electricity and consume more land per-person than any other group in the US (farmland exempt). And they could find this information. They could change their ways. They could, but they don't. They live out their lives and die leaving nothing but damage and overpopulation behind. We have only one Earth. I and everyone I know must live here, and as such, these actions have a direct effect on me.
As I mentioned, I'm not a tree-hugging hippie. In fact, I love development. It's the advancement of our species and that is a good thing. I love new businesses, ports, buildings, anything. What I hate is the bacterial expansion that characterizes urban sprawl. We don't need to expand as we do, but it's the easiest and best fulfills the nations almost ADD-like need for isntant gratification.
There is hope on the horizon. In many western nations the birth rate is dropping, with a brithrate of 0 (number of children per breeding female) in many, already. China proved it's possible. Granted, they had to effectively beat their people into doing it. Obviously, that's not an option because I hate the repression of freedom more than overpopulation. Add another 1 billion in the US and that inclination may change, though.
I think the most important development is the growing movement behind biological cities, sometimes called ecopoli. The ecopolis is an incredible idea and one that takes up much of my time. In fact, it's such a great thing I'll save it for another post.
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