Sprawl Spurning

A University of Illinois at Chicago professor has created a furor among the smelly sandal-wearing crowd by attacking their dogmatic assumption that urban sprawl is a bad thing:

Overall, Bruegmann contends, sprawl is a natural, historic, worldwide process of decentralization that's been going on at least since ancient Rome and China, when the wealthy got away from the bustle and noise of city centers by building homes in outlying areas. More recently in the United States, he says, sprawl is essentially democratic. "Sprawl is largely the result of people of the middle class and even the working class getting what once only the wealthy had: single-family houses and private transportation."

This endorsement of personal initiative and capitalism, which also simultaneously attacks one of the loonie Left's sacred cows, is causing some serious wailing and gnashing of teeth in the commune set. The poor, confused neo-hippies are running in tight little mental circles in an attempt to find holes in the author's arguments:

"There's a certain contrarian glee that Bob takes in goring sacred cows, and I think there's value in challenging us to look at these issues fresh," says Ned Cramer, curator of the Chicago Architecture Foundation. "But I don't think I can set aside my prejudices about the vacuousness of life in suburban sprawl. Gertrude Stein said, 'There's no there there,' and I still on an emotional, psychological and intellectual level fail to find any 'there' in the vast majority of sprawl-style developments that I visit and have lived in."

Notice the utter lack of logical refutation or debate; it's a purely emotional, knee-jerk response of the type that is nearly ubiquitous among the modern American Left's "arguments." I am strongly reminded of a 3-year old child's "argument" concerning why he shouldn't go to bed when told to: "NONONONO! I DON'T WANNAAA!!!! WAAAAIIIGGGHHHH!"

Fortunately I, the Anti-Hippie, have arrived to assist these misguided souls in their hour of need: Trees are overrated. Headlong towards Trantorization, and don't spare the gas! And look on the bright side: you'll be dead before the end of the century.

(Hat-tip: The Mad Builder of Periwinkle)