Canadian Politics Today

So, first off, apologies for not getting back to that thread.  I just don't have as much time to spend here writing as I used to, and when I do log in it seems like there are a lot of things waiting for me to respond to and I feel like I can't get to all of them. There's stuff in the Gender thread that I've been meaning to get to for weeks and still haven't had time to.  And often times it feels like when I do spend time and effort responding to something, I get a cursory response at best and then people go back to exchanging memes and inane verbiage with low-effort members of the forum.  I spend 40 hours a week churning out documentation, and sometimes coming home and getting on a forum to write out my opinions in any amount of detail feels more like work than recreation.

Let me preface this by saying: I'm probably the greenest person here.  I walk to work most days. I live within walking distance of my groceries and the bars and restaurants I like to visit. I only use my vehicle a couple of times per week, and when I do, I usually bundle a number of errands into one trip.  If cars were suddenly banned, my day to day life would probably be less impacted than the vast majority of people. (unless my employment situation changes and my next job is at an industrial park at the edge of town...)  So overall, I'm on board with the idea of creating cities where people can drive less or not at all.


I live in a city surrounded by hills and mountains and forests. I like to visit these wonderful places. I like to take my snow-shoes, or my rifle, or both, or just go for a hike. Whatever Marx's vision of the ideal car-free future, I'm highly sure it doesn't include a transit stop at the trailheads where I like to go.  Marx and their ilk would say "yes, but you see, in the futuristic walkable car-free city of tomorrow, there will be ample recreational spaces right in your neighborhood."  But that really only applies if you share Marx's concept of "recreation".

While the driving itself was not the highlight of any trip I've ever been on, I have to say that many of the most memorable experiences of my life have involved car travel.


And so my complaint with people like Mx Marx isn't that they don't want to drive, its that they don't think anybody else should want to drive either.


Ultimately what Marx is advocating for is a world where we average folks lose our "automobility". They propose that the benefits of a car-free society would more than make up for the loss of the freedom to travel when I want, to go to the places I want, and so-on. I'm highly skeptical. I suspect that these benefits would actually mostly be experienced by urbanite indoor-kid snobs (like Marx themself, I imagine).


(And yes, I understand that they don't literally want people to eat bugs and live in pods.  Instead of bugs it will be vaguely food-like items made from sustainable plant sources, and the pods will have walls, ceilings, and perhaps 100 sq ft or more of floor space.)


 -k