<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1458" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Quoth Dwayne:</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>"<FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Now James, if I'm reading you correctly, you see the sprawling burbs as <BR>an advance over the creaky antiquities of the city, a tommorowland where <BR>dreams come true.</FONT>"</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>No, Dwayne, you don't get it. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>It does not matter what you or I think is the best place for people to live.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>It matters what they think is the best place to live.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>You have a quaintly old-fashioned distaste for getting into a car. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>That's ok - let someone else drive the goods to you, then.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Nobody says that you have to get in a car.</FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Just as its none of your business if others do.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>In what sense are the suburbs and advance on the cities, then?</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>In the sense that people are moving from the cities to the suburbs.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>My point is that it is quixotic to disdain suburbia, when so many people plainly prefer it.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>All it means is that you find it difficult to relate to ordinary people's aspirations.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I do not mean that you have to live in suburbia.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I don't. Nor do you. Lots of other people do.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The great cities of the nineteenth century were built up in an age when transport was expensive,</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>and in the case of Europe, land was scarce (given over to extensive farming).</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Karl Marx, like all the socialists of the nineteenth century looked forward to the abolition of the division between town and country.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>That remained a programmatic demand of the left right up to the bolshevik revolution.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Today, its happening. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Land, retired from farm use is readily available.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Transport is cheap. People commute greater distances. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>There is no need for them all to occupy the same overcrowded space.They can spread out.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Why not, if that's what they want? Isn't socialism about giving people what they want?</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV></BODY></HTML>