I'd like to devote a post or two to why I believe discussions of urban sprawl, transit and related issues on this blog are really not that off topic at all. All are affected by the science of proxemics. I think one of the main reasons coffeehouses have become such a force in American society and, indeed, the world over the last couple of decades is the fact that they provide a venue where people are physically closer to others--particularly random others--than they would otherwise have the opportunity to be. During this same time frame, the political sphere has taken us physically further apart from each other than ever before. I'd argue that this is by design. Isolated, frightened people can be more easily influenced. Such people are, for example, more receptive to the messages that have emanated from a certain faction of the Republican party over the last twenty-odd years. (Mind you, in another lifetime, I might well be an Eisenhower Republican--I just don't think that's the right choice for this lifetime.) At the same time, the marketplace has been only too happy to provide us with the equipment we use to draw a bubble around our bodies and our consciousness. Imagine a stock index made up of the iPod/iPhone, SUVs, big-screen TVs, and the possibly $10 billion or even higher adult entertainment industry.
(To be continued.)
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