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  1. #1
    Thailand Expat Backspin's Avatar
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    My struggle. The ghastly tragedy of North American civic life

    James Howard Kunstler traces America's evolution from a nation of Main Streets and coherent communities to a land where every place is like no place in particular, where the cities are dead zones and the countryside is a wasteland of cartoon architecture and parking lots.

    Kunstler depicts our nation's evolution from the Pilgrim settlements to the modern auto suburb in all its ghastliness. In The Geography of Nowhere, he tallies up the huge economic, social, and spiritual costs that America is paying for its car-crazed lifestyle. It is also a wake-up call for citizens to reinvent the places where we live and work, to build communities that are once again worthy of our affection. Kunstler proposes that by reviving civic art and civic life, we will rediscover public virtue and a new vision of the common good. At 5:07 of the presentation, he gives a depiction of a place worth its while. Those are the kinds of streets you see all over SE Asia. "people just go because its pleasurable to be there" Yes. Like Kohsan road. Its just plain pleasurable to be there.

    <em>



    Whatever suburban civic life in N. America is, the busy and colorful streets in the major centers of SE Asia are the opposite. The heightened role of the motorcycle increases this effect. There is something spiritually uplifting about being in a real human ecosystem. And there is something crushing about living in a glorified Walmart parking lot. But hey im just here for the mongering right ? No. It is far deeper and more complicated than that.

    Everything James Howard Kunstler says is 100% spot on.
    Last edited by Backspin; 12-08-2020 at 11:29 AM.

  2. #2
    Thailand Expat Backspin's Avatar
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    He starts at 3:27

  3. #3
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    Oh FFS. You had a privileged middle class western upbringing. You should appreciate the fact you sad whiney asshole.
    I'll bet as a kid you never went cold or hungry or without shoes or medical or dental care when you need it.
    I hate fucking whingers.
    Question.
    Why did you blow 25k on hookers then sell bitcoin to buy heroin? Why didn't you hang onto the bitcoin? You might not be such a whiney prick today.
    Oh and if you say because you needed the money to buy heroin why didn't you save the 25k instead of blowing it on hookers?
    Don't blame society, boomers, or timing. You made bad decisions, and they were YOURS to make.
    Now shut the fuck up.
    “If we stop testing right now we’d have very few cases, if any.” Donald J Trump.

  4. #4
    Thailand Expat Backspin's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cujo View Post
    Oh FFS. You had a privileged middle class western upbringing. You should appreciate the fact you sad whiney asshole.
    I'll bet as a kid you never went cold or hungry or without shoes or medical or dental care when you need it.
    I hate fucking whingers.
    Question.
    Why did you blow 25k on hookers then sell bitcoin to buy heroin? Why didn't you hang onto the bitcoin? You might not be such a whiney prick today.
    Oh and if you say because you needed the money to buy heroin why didn't you save the 25k instead of blowing it on hookers?
    Don't blame society, boomers, or timing. You made bad decisions, and they were YOURS to make.
    Now shut the fuck up.
    Did you watch the first video ? Please do

  5. #5
    I Amn't In Jail PlanK's Avatar
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    My struggle. The ghastly tragedy of North American civic life-ap7mm5k_460s-jpg

  6. #6
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    That's one mans opinion.
    The suburbs give people space. For the kids to play in the yard, to have a shed for your hobby, for fresh air, a place to park your Corvette securely.
    You realize he's anti car right.

  7. #7
    Thailand Expat Backspin's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cujo View Post
    That's one mans opinion.
    The suburbs give people space. For the kids to play in the yard, to have a shed for your hobby, for fresh air, a place to park your Corvette securely.
    You realize he's anti car right.
    My Corvette was just an attempt at a motorcycle with a roof. Having a motorcycle in north America isn't like having one in Asia. My heart is with motorcycles and anywhere that is scaled for motorcycles.

  8. #8
    Thailand Expat Backspin's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cujo View Post
    Oh FFS. You had a privileged middle class western upbringing. You should appreciate the fact you sad whiney asshole.
    I'll bet as a kid you never went cold or hungry or without shoes or medical or dental care when you need it.
    I hate fucking whingers.
    Question.
    Why did you blow 25k on hookers then sell bitcoin to buy heroin? Why didn't you hang onto the bitcoin? You might not be such a whiney prick today.
    Oh and if you say because you needed the money to buy heroin why didn't you save the 25k instead of blowing it on hookers?
    Don't blame society, boomers, or timing. You made bad decisions, and they were YOURS to make.
    Now shut the fuck up.
    The title of the thread explains all that I've done. I was living at home still when I first went to Thailand. Talk about a spiritual shock. One minute you are in the Patpong night market picking up some cheap goods and cavorting with beautiful women and the next minute you are flown back to jail. The spiritual wasteland that is N. American civic life

  9. #9
    The Fool on the Hill bowie's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Backspin View Post
    One minute you are in the Patpong night market picking up some cheap goods and cavorting with beautiful women and the next minute you are flown back to jail.
    OK, Backspin - where are you at today?

  10. #10
    Thailand Expat Backspin's Avatar
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    From James Howard Kunstlers book.

    "my friends that I used to live with back in suburbia , entered a coma as puberty came. There was so little for them to do in Northwood and hardly any worthwhile destination reachable by bike or foot. Since they had no public gathering places , teens congregated in firtive little holes. Teen life there was reduced to that transforming moment of becoming a licensed driver.

    Jesus Christ. This is my life he's describing. Except through some pure chance , me and my friends found ourselves in a tuk tuk , doing a catwalk down the sidewalk of a busy Bangkok street, with 3 large Changs in hand , and one for the driver of course. That was rapture. The biggest fuck you to N.American suburban life that you can imagine
    Last edited by Backspin; 12-08-2020 at 08:19 PM.

  11. #11
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    ^ Do what you have to do to get out. You said your wife is a Flipper, she gives you a way in to the Philippines.

    Suburbia in the Americas is a privileged life. It is a cushy existence compared to how people in the Thai or Philippine countryside live. Yet people in Thailand and Philippines have a richer life. Closer to their families and neighbors. Happier.

  12. #12
    Thailand Expat Backspin's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by misskit View Post
    ^ Do what you have to do to get out. You said your wife is a Flipper, she gives you a way in to the Philippines.

    Suburbia in the Americas is a privileged life. It is a cushy existence compared to how people in the Thai or Philippine countryside live. Yet people in Thailand and Philippines have a richer life. Closer to their families and neighbors. Happier.
    Exactly misskit. There is something different about civic life in N.America compared to Asia and even Europe that I couldn't quite locate. Until now.

    I have accepted the fact that I won't be able to live there until later in life. Perhaps retirement. But in the meantime , trips are good enough.

  13. #13
    Thailand Expat

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    Suburbia is comfortable for many.
    But it makes my skin crawl.
    So sterile and uniform.

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by docmartin View Post
    Suburbia is comfortable for many.
    But it makes my skin crawl.
    So sterile and uniform.
    What about the country? Could you live in the country. I mean the countryside or however you might describe it.
    The bush.

  15. #15
    Thailand Expat Backspin's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by docmartin View Post
    Suburbia is comfortable for many.
    But it makes my skin crawl.
    So sterile and uniform.
    That's why they are so easily ridiculed. They are cartoon versions of homes in the country.

    There is way too much missing for them to be an acceptable human habitat.

  16. #16
    Thailand Expat tomcat's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Backspin View Post
    There is way too much missing for them to be an acceptable human habitat.
    ...^subjective generalization: maybe your suburb was a cultural waste land...mine included a university, a community college, an excellent library system, public schools with strong sports programs...and lots of Jews...

  17. #17
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    Sounds to me like socal's discovered acid.

  18. #18
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Backspin View Post
    I have accepted the fact that I won't be able to live there until later in life. Perhaps retirement. But in the meantime , trips are good enough.
    Why? Could you not sell out and use the proceeds to start a business with your wife somewhere nice in the Phils?

  19. #19
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    ^ You haven’t gone and had children, have you?

  20. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by misskit View Post
    ^ You haven’t gone and had children, have you?
    Phuck, let's hope not.

  21. #21
    Thailand Expat Backspin's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cujo View Post
    Sounds to me like socal's discovered acid.


    F off. So the guy who has spent 20+ years in a bright bustling Asian city , is here to tell us that James Howard Kunstler's whole schtic is a bunch of poppycock.

    And I'm not whinging. This is just my lived experience. I've seen both and I prefer a proper human habitat
    Last edited by Backspin; 12-08-2020 at 11:32 PM.

  22. #22
    Thailand Expat Backspin's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bowie View Post
    OK, Backspin - where are you at today?
    I am perpetually strategic renting suburban Vancouver

  23. #23
    Thailand Expat Backspin's Avatar
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    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails My struggle. The ghastly tragedy of North American civic life-1640194-immersive-ugliness-our-everyday-environments  

  24. #24
    Thailand Expat Backspin's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by misskit View Post
    Why? Could you not sell out and use the proceeds to start a business with your wife somewhere nice in the Phils?
    I've made leaps into the great unknown like this before , with limited success. So no. The Phills doesn't need me or my business. Not in these monetary conditions anyway

  25. #25
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    It isn’t all about money. It’s about being happy. You make your own prison.

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