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-   -   Slippery Slope: Living in our Commons (http://www.politicalchat.org/showthread.php?t=11462)

ebacon 02-10-2017 10:29 PM

Slippery Slope: Living in our Commons
 
Tonight I am noodling on a thought. I do not know where it came from, but it seems to be rooted in our debate over a wall.

When does our collective heart tilt away from the idea of building a national wall? People that grew up near THE WALL know that we outgrew it.

When I arrived in the U.S. my mind was disconcerted between all of our fences. What happened to unity I wondered? The Statue of Liberty? Those thoughts really hit home when I worked inside the fence at the GM Technical Center. An employee was from the middle east. Story was that he lived inside the Tech Center to save on rent. He also showered with Tech Center water for free. It all made sense to me. He was efficient. What I did not understand was why engineers that purportedly worried about efficiency wanted to kick him out. :confused:

What goes through your mind as you think about common spaces and how people fence them?

nailer 02-11-2017 11:08 AM

Private property is not the Commons and common space is regulated.

Tom Joad 02-11-2017 11:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nailer (Post 347425)
Private property is not the commons and common space is regulated.


I don't believe in private property.

Now get off my lawn!:mad:

nailer 02-11-2017 11:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tom Joad (Post 347426)
I don't believe in private property.

Now get off my lawn!:mad:

Mister Meany. :p

ebacon 02-12-2017 07:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nailer (Post 347425)
Private property is not the Commons and common space is regulated.

I agree that you have the correct answer as to why the person should not have lived on private property.

Do you ever think about how to persuade us to live closer together and reduce our reliance on automobiles?

That's the stuff I think about lately. It seems like we all want to own our own little campgrounds but we end up getting lonely in them. Then we hop in our cars in search of hangout spots, whether they be bars, theaters, actual campgrounds, etc. Engineers are working their butts off to solve the energy efficiency problems but I think they have reached a physical limit. The pendulum has swung from efficiency being an engineering problem to efficiency being an emotional problem -- the emotions of living closer to one another. Politics.

nailer 02-19-2017 10:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ebacon (Post 347630)
I agree that you have the correct answer as to why the person should not have lived on private property.

Do you ever think about how to persuade us to live closer together and reduce our reliance on automobiles?

That's the stuff I think about lately. It seems like we all want to own our own little campgrounds but we end up getting lonely in them. Then we hop in our cars in search of hangout spots, whether they be bars, theaters, actual campgrounds, etc. Engineers are working their butts off to solve the energy efficiency problems but I think they have reached a physical limit. The pendulum has swung from efficiency being an engineering problem to efficiency being an emotional problem -- the emotions of living closer to one another. Politics.

I don't think the government can persuade the vast majority of Americans to voluntarily do something they don't want to do. The desire to have your own space is part of who we are as a species. People who can afford to have always put space between themselves and others, even within a family. What younger brother who shared a bedroom with his older brother didn't long for his own room. In addition, people who live in close quarters are as lonely as those they that don't.

I understand your concern about what Global Warming is going to bring about. It can be frustrating to perceive that we have the ability to address some of the identifiable causes. Are you familiar with James Burke's excellent Connections series? At it's close he presents four paths into the future we could take to address the problem. The last one is the path he thinks we will follow - muddle through as best we can because that is what humans have done with crises since the beginning of history. It's who we are as a species.

donquixote99 02-19-2017 10:37 AM

Here's a commons question. The other day a vacuum truck stopped right in front of my house and proceeded to dump it's contents into the storm sewer. An abuse of the commons, no? Or, might it have been legal? I doubt it. I can't see why 'legal' practice would be to go to a side residential street not visible from a main street to dump....

I've got pics. Should I blow the whistle on these guys? The most that might happen, I expect is they guys on the truck might be in trouble. There might be some risk for me to, given the rep of private waste haulers....

Dondilion 02-19-2017 10:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nailer (Post 348502)
I don't think the government can persuade the vast majority of Americans to voluntarily do something they don't want to do. The desire to have your own space is part of who we are as a species. People who can afford to have always put space between themselves and others, even within a family. What younger brother who shared a bedroom with his older brother didn't long for his own room. In addition, people who live in close quarters are as lonely as those they that don't.

I understand your concern about what Global Warming is going to bring about. It can be frustrating to perceive that we have the ability to address some of the identifiable causes. Are you familiar with James Burke's excellent Connections series? At the close of it he present four paths into the future we could take to address the problem. The last one is the path he thinks we will follow - muddle through it the best we can because that is what humans have done with crises since the beginning of history. It's who we are as a species.

Great input Sir.

BlueStreak 02-19-2017 11:07 AM

I think of the time the Obama administration closed monuments and parks and folks led by Sarah Palin forced their way in anyways because "Our taxes pay for it, it belongs to the people and by God we'll use it whenever we like!"......

Because something is owned by the government with our tax money means we get to use it whenever the fancy strikes? Stealing a cop car isn't really theft, because my taxes paid for it?

Of course not, that's idiotic. (Hence it's association with Sarah.)

Fences on private property? It's my property, I paid for it, I pay the taxes on ot. I have a right to keep my neighbors dog from crapping on it if I want.

ebacon 02-20-2017 06:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nailer (Post 348502)
I don't think the government can persuade the vast majority of Americans to voluntarily do something they don't want to do. The desire to have your own space is part of who we are as a species. People who can afford to have always put space between themselves and others, even within a family. What younger brother who shared a bedroom with his older brother didn't long for his own room. In addition, people who live in close quarters are as lonely as those they that don't.

I understand your concern about what Global Warming is going to bring about. It can be frustrating to perceive that we have the ability to address some of the identifiable causes. Are you familiar with James Burke's excellent Connections series? At it's close he presents four paths into the future we could take to address the problem. The last one is the path he thinks we will follow - muddle through as best we can because that is what humans have done with crises since the beginning of history. It's who we are as a species.

I see what you are saying. The muddler camp is a big one and I must admit that it is my comfort zone. Perhaps a difference between myself and fellow American muddlers is that I have the courage to write that we need to use less land as we continue our muddling. We do not seem to want to maintain it anyway.


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