Woes and the 00's

So it's six hours till the beginning of another year and it seems a convenient time to be a little retrospective. We've experienced 6 out of 10 of the 00 decade and it is thus non-too-early to begin conceptualizing the decade that is/was. What will it have been? What flavor was the zeitgeist? What will be said about the national character, the collective unconscious, all of that?

At a time when culture is more homoginized than ever before, I can't help but begin by noting how diverse America still is- even within my own family. I should note that one might call this year, for me, The Year of the Soapbox. Time spent working in the nonprofit sector and for an organic farm has opened my eyes to serious, and seemingly obvious economic and ethical problems facing this country. Among my generation, at least in certain circles, awareness of these problems seems high. When I say problems I'm thinking of America's fragile, globally dependent economy, rampant (maniacal) over-consumption and the resulting ill health of the population. I'm thinking of a food system that is toxifying and unsustainable. I'm thinking of car-culture and the suburban way of life that is both culturally barren and incredibly wasteful of precious resources. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

Time spent with friends in the city makes me feel as if tides are turning. I see a rebirth of good urbanism, economic and social diversity, a drive to use green transportation and support local, sustainable economic systems. I think to myself that soon, everyone will be on the band wagon. A quick trip through Atlanta's northern suburbs on the way to visit my parents reminds me that things are not so simple. The ex-urban housing boom, even in its now-dwindling form, still far outpaces the urban one. Walmart is finding a way to creep into new urban markets that, once unattractive, now promise profits thanks to the efforts of pioneering small businesses. Strip mall after strip mall is going up on the virgin farmland around my parents' small town. When I'm at home I always try to "convert" my conservative father. He's a thoughtful Christian, and I believe a good man. Yet I can't seem to sell him on what, to me, seem such obvious moral imperatives. I ask him how he feels about the strip malls and he just explains, with a matter-of-factness that is utterly deflating, how convenient it is to have all the shopping. I ask him doesn't it bother him that they just keep widening the road instead of designing the city to better accomodate the growing population. He replys, again with that murderous matter-of-factness, that so many choices cannot be compatable with the population of a small/medium sized town without everyone driving their cars. In many ways he is a typical American, himself raised in the suburbs, taking much about our affluent, car-dependent lifestyle for granted. This year I didn't bring up our regular argument: George Bush and the war. I should note for fairness that in many ways he is not a typical American. He hates waste and over-consumption. Indeed, he is one of the least materialistic people I know and I'd like to think I inherited some of his strong critical thinking skills.

So, on the eve of 2007, I believe that America is still capable of a great deal of diversity of opinions and values. My father and I come from essentially the same place: white, middleclass suburbia and yet we see the state of the world in very different ways and have come to value very different things. Perhaps this is simply the typical generation gap but it is still an interesting place from which to try to analyze the state of the nation. Maybe it is reducable to the now cliche red state/ blue state dichotomy. Maybe it is the consequence of the even more simplistic post-modern relativism. I'm not sure, but I do believe that the 2000's can be characterized, as many times before have, by a dominant culture and a counter culture. I think their differentiating feature is, and Marx would agree with me on this, differing modes of production, or at least, differing ideals of production. Or maybe differing understandings of production in general. The dominant culture sees consumption as essentially morally neutral. Despite lipservice to religious feelings against gluttony, they no longer recognize themselves as consuming way more of the earth's resources than is healthy or just. This consumption has reached the level of mania in the 00's and will be the defining characteristic of this era. I believe that one source of the motivation for consumption mania is the comprehension, on some level, that "the end is near". That is to say, that it can't go on like this much longer. Either we'll blow ourselves up, destroy the planet, or poison ourselves with this lifestyle; whichever one comes first. People are desperate to ignore this truth, so on they shop, even if they must go into debt to do it.

The dominant culture is so extreme that it is producing a growing backlash, a counterculture, that is trying desperately to live differently. The counterculture has many, many faces: urban bike kids, organic farmers, savvy green entrepreneurs, New Urban planners, gen x mothers who are leading the trend to eat organic because they care about their children's health. Added to this are scores of young people who are trying to pick up the threads of the past, and learn skills for producing their own useful goods. Many of these skills are in danger of being lost forever as the generation of my grandfather begins to die of old age. The indie craft movement is one example of this effort.

So that's the general script for our lives right now. Technology is casting an interesting glow on the drama as it unfolds, offering great potential to either side of the conflict. I believe that, by the end of the 00's life will have changed even more dramatically than it has in the past 6 years. I also believe that many of those changes will play out pretty messily, and unfortunately, violently. Hopefully, by the time this is history, I'll still be around to join the debate.