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Our building practices for the past century have been plain stupid - especially the glorification of the single-family house in a subdivision, at the expense of all other typologies and arrangements.

James Howard Kunstler

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James Howard Kunstler
Age: 76
Born: 1948
Born: October 19
Author
Environmentalist
Journalist
Novelist
Science Fiction Writer
Writer
New York City
New York
Practice
Arrangements
Family
Expenses
House
Plain
Past
Especially
Typology
Building
Subdivision
Single
Glorification
Stupid
Expense
Century
Practices

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Once energy problems gain traction, there will be a large new class of economic losers, and consequently a lot of social turbulence.
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The ideas of [ Le Corbusier ] that actually found their way into practice were deeply destructive - for instance, the tower-in-a-park, which mutated into the vertical slums of the late 20th century.
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In my view, suburbia in general has very poor prospects. I think it will only become devalued and probably more dangerous. It's chief characteristic was that it represented a living arrangement with no future - and that future is now here.
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Ridicule is the unfortunate destiny of the ridiculous.
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The Long Emergency will be chiefly characterized as a time out from technology. It could plunge us into a dark age of superstition. My guess is that we will lose a lot of knowledge and skill. But I also believe the human race desperately needs this time out.
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The industrial age is over. What follows will be life lived on a much smaller and finer scale.
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People don't like railroad tracks near them? We'll see how they feel when the percentage of U.S. citizens who can afford to drive a car goes way down, as it will.
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The living arrangements American now think of as normal are bankrupting us economically, socially, ecologically and spiritually.
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On top of the insult of destroying the geographic places we call home, the chain stores also destroyed people's place in the order of daily life, including the duties, responsibilities, obligations, and ceremonies that prompt citizens to care for each other.
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I believe most of suburbia is unreformable and will not be fixed.
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I think we'll see a leveling off and then a contraction of population, not a continued upward trend.
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Motion is a great tranquilizer.
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A land full of places that are not worth caring about may soon be a nation and a way of life that is not worth defending.
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The economy of the 21st century will come to center on agriculture. Life will be intensely and profoundly local in ways that we can't conceive of today. Economic growth, as we have known it in a cheap energy industrial paradigm, will cease.
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The suburban cycle which began a hundred years ago is nearly over. We are in for a period of contraction and economic hardship.
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In our current frame of mind, or paradigm, or whatever you want to call it, we like to think that marshalling government policy is the way to get things done.
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I have a new theory of history, which is certain things happen because they seem like a good idea at the time. And suburbia seemed like a good idea at the time, but it was a special time and place in history, with special dynamics. And now, we're going to have to live with the consequences of that. And the consequences will be tragic.
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Of course, the toxic bullshit of incessant advertising and show biz for nearly a century has stripped us of cognitive abilities for dealing with reality that used to be part of the normal equipment of adulthood - for instance, knowing the difference between wishing for stuff and making stuff happen. We bamboozled ourselves with too much magic.
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When a society is stressed, when it comes up against things that are hard to understand, you get a lot of delusional thinking.
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I don't like talking about 'solutions.' I prefer talking about intelligent responses.
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