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Poor white suburbanite
Several years ago, I bought a collection of studio Ghibli films. There's a few common themes that run through all of them. Mostly about seeing magic and beauty in the natural world, but a sub-theme that's present in nearly all of them is the kindness of strangers. In most of the films, there are multiple strangers who are willing to help out the main characters. Give them a place to stay for the night or a ride to somewhere or help them set up a shop or something. Miyazakisan's worlds are filled with kind and caring people.
In a broader sense, a LOT of stories are filled with those sorts of people. What would have happened to Snow White had the dwarves been less kind? Even in Hunter S. Thompson's books, they're always picking up hitchhikers, letting people crash for the night and such.
I find myself wondering about these people. Are they common? Were they more common at one time? It sure seems like, listening to people talk about the 60s, that there were a lot more people like that around. Even for myself, I can remember in the early 90s, there were still a fair number of Hitchhikers in Santa Cruz area and I'd pick them up and give them lifts sometimes, but I've not seen a hitcher in a long time. They've become much more rare. I help people out when I can, sometimes strangers, but more often friends.
It seems though, that this sort of stuff is a lot more rare than it was a few decades ago. For myself, the one time in my life I was homeless and needed help, I didn't have the greatest experience, and it was with a person I already knew. So what happened to us as a society? Why have we become so cold to others?
My pet theories are cars and television. When not everyone had a car, they were happy to show them off, share some time with a stranger and do a good deed, giving them a lift. But as cars have become more common, why bother? Everyone has one and anyone who doesn't must be some kind of bum, possibly a serial killer or mentally disturbed. And television.. Gotta get home and watch that show about the girl who picks up the hitchhiker who turns out to be a serial killer. That shrill box of vapid creativity suck. Who needs to know their neighbors? You've got all the human interaction you need right there in that glowing magic box.
There are probably other culprits too, but I think these two have the biggest isolating effect on people. Even the internet isn't nearly so bad. Even with WOW or something, you're at least talking to other people, though I confess I find far more value in things like Livejournal and SecondLife. Still. I wanna know. How do we fix all this? We've become a nation of selfish, shrill and paranoid gits. It's very sad. :(
In a broader sense, a LOT of stories are filled with those sorts of people. What would have happened to Snow White had the dwarves been less kind? Even in Hunter S. Thompson's books, they're always picking up hitchhikers, letting people crash for the night and such.
I find myself wondering about these people. Are they common? Were they more common at one time? It sure seems like, listening to people talk about the 60s, that there were a lot more people like that around. Even for myself, I can remember in the early 90s, there were still a fair number of Hitchhikers in Santa Cruz area and I'd pick them up and give them lifts sometimes, but I've not seen a hitcher in a long time. They've become much more rare. I help people out when I can, sometimes strangers, but more often friends.
It seems though, that this sort of stuff is a lot more rare than it was a few decades ago. For myself, the one time in my life I was homeless and needed help, I didn't have the greatest experience, and it was with a person I already knew. So what happened to us as a society? Why have we become so cold to others?
My pet theories are cars and television. When not everyone had a car, they were happy to show them off, share some time with a stranger and do a good deed, giving them a lift. But as cars have become more common, why bother? Everyone has one and anyone who doesn't must be some kind of bum, possibly a serial killer or mentally disturbed. And television.. Gotta get home and watch that show about the girl who picks up the hitchhiker who turns out to be a serial killer. That shrill box of vapid creativity suck. Who needs to know their neighbors? You've got all the human interaction you need right there in that glowing magic box.
There are probably other culprits too, but I think these two have the biggest isolating effect on people. Even the internet isn't nearly so bad. Even with WOW or something, you're at least talking to other people, though I confess I find far more value in things like Livejournal and SecondLife. Still. I wanna know. How do we fix all this? We've become a nation of selfish, shrill and paranoid gits. It's very sad. :(
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I think you're onto something with the car. It works the opposite way, I think. People are so used to that they can climb in the car and go places that they don't consider other people might not have that. Remember all the people after Katrina who were on about, "well, surely all those people in NOLA could've just hopped in cars and sat the storm and reconstruction out in Tennessee or something" - stuff like that? I think it's like your contention, just the cluelessness is less malicious.
But more pernicious thanks to cultural junk. Europeans seem to live in a much smaller world than us - and while there are down sides, some of the upsides include things like TEE, or more of a thriving youth hostel thing, or more public transport regularly available. Us, we have all this big spread out geography which necessitates cars. I don't have a car because it's this wonderful luxury that means I can get to Portland faster than the train. I have a car because it's a necessity for getting to work. And this stuff just culturally builds on itself. We have cars and we're spread out because we've always had cars and been spread out.
Here's another link for you. It's basically about how the architecture and emotional appeal of downtown Ann Arbor are really linked together, caused and sustained both by things being walkable, by the viability of small businesses. I found this while feeling really homesick for the place, so it was fascinating to watch someone actually dissect why this downtown would be so vivid in my memory. I'm going to stop before I send this discussion plunging off into architecture.
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When I back off from my personal stuff, though, I still definitely feel like there are links between car culture, isolating suburban culture, architectural styles, and business distribution.
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