"The long emergency is a period of gradual revelation, during which our institutions will fail us and we will discover just how far gone we really are."
The "Long Emergency," as described by James Howard Kunstler, refers to an extended phase of societal decline due to the unsustainable nature of modern life. This era is characterized by the gradual failure of institutions that have been built on unrealistic assumptions about infinite resources and technological solutions. During this time, we may come to realize the extent of our overshoot and ecological debt, as these failures expose our vulnerabilities. The quote underscores that the Long Emergency serves not just as a period of crisis but also as a process of awakening – a time when people will learn valuable lessons about resilience, self-reliance, and living within the natural limits of our planet.
"Suburbia is nothing more or less than land consumed by buildings and pavement, leaving behind an environment of dead places where life does not gather because it has no choice."
This quote by James Howard Kunstler suggests that suburban areas, characterized by extensive building development and paving, lack the natural features and community interactions necessary to support vibrant, life-filled environments. He implies that these built-up spaces, while they might have once been open land, no longer offer the essential elements needed for life to thrive - such as green spaces, walkability, and opportunities for social interaction - because they have been replaced by buildings and pavement. In essence, suburban areas are devoid of life due to their lack of natural habitat and community connectivity.
"The future is already here – it's just not evenly distributed."
This quote suggests that advancements, innovations, or circumstances associated with the future are already in existence, but they are not equally accessible or experienced across different societies, regions, or groups of people. In other words, while some may be benefiting from future technological advancements, economic opportunities, or societal changes, others are left behind and continue to live in conditions that resemble the past. This inequality highlights the importance of addressing disparities and ensuring equitable distribution of resources, opportunities, and progress for a more just and sustainable society.
"The greatest shortcoming of the modern world is its inability to see a problem before it becomes an emergency."
This quote by James Howard Kunstler underscores the lack of foresight and proactive action that characterizes much of modern society. He suggests that instead of addressing issues and challenges before they escalate, we tend to wait until they become urgent or critical emergencies. This reactive approach can lead to increased complexity, greater costs, and potential catastrophe. It highlights the importance of planning, prevention, and long-term thinking in managing societal problems effectively.
"We are living through the death throes of a failed civilization, which is disintegrating around us, and we find ourselves powerless to do much about it, because we're trapped in it, like animals in a burning building who don't yet realize that they need to get out."
This quote suggests that we are experiencing the final stages of a collapsing civilization, which is falling apart around us, leaving us feeling helpless because we are so deeply immersed in it that we don't fully comprehend the urgency to escape. It paints a picture of being trapped in a dire situation, like animals caught in a burning building who don't yet realize the danger they're in. The quote is profoundly insightful as it reflects the sense of powerlessness and confusion people often feel when faced with systemic societal issues that seem insurmountable.
The newspaper headlines may shout about global warming, extinctions of living species, the devastation of rain forests, and other worldwide catastrophes, but Americans evince a striking complacency when it comes to their everyday environment and the growing calamity that it represents.
- James Howard Kunstler
History is moving the furniture around in the house of mankind just about everywhere but the U.S.A. Things have changed, except here, where people come and go through the rooms of state, and everything looks shabbier by the day, and lethargy eats away at the upholstery like an acid fog, and the walls reverberate with meaningless oratory.
- James Howard Kunstler
I'm convinced that the Great Lakes region will be at the center of an internally-focused North American economy when the hallucination of oil-powered globalism dissolves. Places like Buffalo, Cleveland, and Detroit will have a new life, but not at the scale of the twentieth century.
- James Howard Kunstler
I do all I can to maintain good health. I eat mostly plants, as Michael Pollan would say. I get a lot of exercise. I lead a purposeful daily life. I stay current with the dentist. I made the formative decision of where to live over thirty years ago when I settled in a 'main street' small town in upstate New York.
- James Howard Kunstler
The faltering of our suburban living arrangement is probably certain. The response of suburbanites is not. Will they elect maniacs who promise to make America just like it was in 1997? Will there be a desperate attempt to sustain the unsustainable by authoritarian measures? Will the institutions of order and justice fail in the process?
- James Howard Kunstler
Everything we do these days - our lust for ever more comfort, pleasure, and distraction, our refusal to engage with the mandates of reality, our fidelity to cults of technology and limitless growth, our narcissistic national exceptionalism - all of this propels us toward the realm where souls abandon all hope.
- James Howard Kunstler
Parallel parking is desirable for two reasons: parked cars create a physical barrier and psychological buffer that protects pedestrians on the sidewalk from moving vehicles; and a rich supply of parallel parking can eliminate the need for parking lots, which are extremely destructive of the civic fabric.
- James Howard Kunstler
Human settlements are like living organisms. They must grow, and they will change. But we can decide on the nature of that growth - on the quality and the character of it - and where it ought to go. We don't have to scatter the building blocks of our civic life all over the countryside, destroying our towns and ruining farmland.
- James Howard Kunstler
In short, chronological connectivity puts us in touch with the holy. It is at once humbling and exhilarating. I say this as someone who has never followed any formal religious practice. Connection with the past and the future is a pathway that charms us in the direction of sanity and grace.
- James Howard Kunstler
White America is tortured by black America's failure to thrive, and all that guilt and anxiety has only gotten worse as a substantial quota of white America loses its own footing in the middle class and plunges into the rough country of joblessness, hopelessness, and government dependency.
- James Howard Kunstler
Black America surely faces an existential crisis, but not the one imagined in the condescending news media - of somehow getting non-black America to be more just and generous. The truth is, we've already been through that, and there is nothing left to do. We're out of 'affirmative actions' of all kinds.
- James Howard Kunstler
Ahead now, I think you'll see the big nations shrink back into their own corners of the world. I'm not saying we'll see no international trade, but it will be nothing like the conveyer belt from China to Wal-Mart that we've known the last few decades. And the prospects for conflict are very, very high.
- James Howard Kunstler
Phoenix and Las Vegas have grim long-term prospects. On top of oil-and-gas problems, they will have terrible problems with water and the ability to produce food locally. I suppose it shows how delusional the public is, and how our institutional controls have decayed - for instance, lending standards.
- James Howard Kunstler
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