Down with the Cities.
by Tadashi Nakashima.
PREAMBLE
Saying "Down with the cities!" is not a rash statement. If we do not get rid of the cities, the human race will disappear from the face of the Earth. The cities are none other than the source of all pollution, and the root of all evil. One may try to leave the cities as they are and get rid of only the pollution, but it will be wasted effort. Environmental destruction and pollution are caused by none other than the functioning of the urban machine; pollution is, we may say, the unavoidable respiratory function, metabolic function, and bowel movements of the cities.
If we plug up the nose, mouth, and a.n.u.s of a human being, is it possible to continue living? Therefore, if we are to banish urban pollution from the Earth, we must eliminate the cities themselves.
CHAPTER I
Urban Sprawl
The cities are spreading out like amoebae. No matter what part of the world, and no matter what kind of political or economic system, the expansion of the cities is more than apparent wherever you look. If urbanization continues in this manner, the entire surface of the Earth will in time be covered with cities.
I should explain that by urbanization I do not mean merely the spread of what we normally call "cities." In urbanization I include interurban buildups, those along train lines and roads, housing developments, tourist facilities at resorts, rural factories, and a host of other things. We must also consider the buildups in the centers of villages, and asphalt roads in (what is mistakenly considered to be) the boondocks as a kind of urbanization. In other words, the city is not just something that we distinguish from the country by region alone; we must also make a clear distinction in accordance with differences in industries (that is, cla.s.s). To wit, the city is a place that is home to the secondary and tertiary industries, or is a place where the employees of such industries dwell. No matter how far back in the sticks one goes, if one finds anything relating to the secondary or tertiary industries -- such as public facilities or concrete river bank walls -- such a place must also be recognized as the city.
Let us then examine the reasons for the unbounded, continuous expansion of the cities.
Reason One
Throughout the entire world, in no matter what country, "modernization" is the glorious banner under which all people gather. If something is done under the name of modernization, it is considered good, and if it stands in the way of modernization, it is automatically evil. Modernization: Expressed in different terms it is the prosperity of the secondary and tertiary industries. [1] And since these industries are based in the cities, modernization means urbanization.
Right now, all around the world, increasing numbers of people are, with the aim of achieving modernization, engaging in the secondary and tertiary industries, and that is why we witness the further, inevitable expansion of the cities. As long as modernization is not negated as an evil, urbanization will continue unabated.
Reason Two
Modernization -- if we look at this in another way we see that it is the pursuit of Convenience, Extravagance, and Ease; it signifies the ceaseless advance toward infinite prosperity.
And the pursuit of convenience, extravagance, and ease is none other than an expression of instinctual human greed -- we want to have it easier and eat more delectable cuisine, we want to do more stimulating things, we want objects that are rarer and more beautiful. Thus the secondary and tertiary industries, in manufacturing and supplying us with festivals and entertainment and trinkets and gewgaws, are able to scale the heights of prosperity, and the cities thereby continue their boundless expansion.
Reason Three
There is one other abettor of urbanization that we must not overlook: the bewitching power of the money economy. In order to make more money, the city manufactures more merchandise than necessary, and forces services down our throats. Charged with the economic mission known as the Pursuit of Profit, the secondary and tertiary industries work hard at money making, and this too leads to the expansion of the cities.
The above three elements -- (1) a national policy of modernization, i.e., urbanization; (2) the instinctive desire of human beings for prosperity, i.e., urbanization; (3) the Pursuit of Profit, which propels the secondary and tertiary industries to make more and more money, i.e., urbanization -- combine to cause the increasing spread of the cities. This is symbolized in, for example, the construction industry.
Urbanization is, in more concrete terms, the covering of everything with concrete. Whether buildings or roads or riverbanks or seash.o.r.es, the rule of thumb in modern times is to make it out of concrete. There are, to be sure, occasional pea gravel gardens or dirt playing fields in the cities, but these are few and far between. Cities are made by smothering the ground with concrete. Indeed, the city can be understood as construction itself.
Never-Ending Construction
The world is full of construction officials, who, if they cannot plan some kind of project, are capable of nothing but yawning; the proprietors of construction companies, who, in order to make money, cannot rest from their labors for a minute; the pitiful part-time farmers who pay back their loans by engaging in construction work; the proprietors of cement and gravel companies who will be in a pickle if they cannot get someone to use the tons of building materials they have made; the truckers and the dealers in construction machinery and fuel for them; the big shot politicians like Tanaka Kakuei whose life work is pork barrel; the idiotic voters who weep for joy over the services brought in by construction (that is, urbanization)... With an arrangement like this, it is almost a.s.sured that, even if the vast oceans dry up, there will always be construction going on in the world. At this rate, it will not be that far in the future before they are carrying out construction work among the peaks of the Himalayas.
There are some who will say, "Come now, they wouldn"t go so far as to do such unnecessary work in the Himalayas," but if this is so, then when all the construction work in the world has been completed and there is no more to be done, is it possible to think that the Ministry of Construction will disband itself, that the construction companies will go belly up, that the cement companies will close down, or that the part-time farmers will hang themselves? There is no doubt that when such a time comes they will carry out needless construction work like covering over the peaks of the Himalayas with concrete. There will be no end to construction work, and consequently the urbanization of the Earth"s surface will continue until the ground disappears entirely. [2]
Even now, in every place imaginable, they are building solid concrete walls in places where, they think, perhaps once in a thousand years there will be a landslide; they needlessly dig up bamboo groves which will most a.s.suredly not be washed away, and stack up concrete blocks. There are instances in which by merest chance, such a place is visited by natural disaster, and they take the matter to court saying that it is the government"s oversight. In actuality, however, the authorities, whom one would expect to be bitter over losing the case, are smiling contentedly. This is because the government has obtained proof of the need to pour astronomical sums of money into a totally needless construction project, the excuse being that one never knows when disaster will strike. Though the government and the construction companies openly plan and carry out needless construction projects everywhere so the contractors can profit, there is little fear that the citizens will ever take them to court over any of it.
In addition, the government uses construction projects to stimulate the economy. Using construction bonds as a convenient cover, it spurts out wads of money (merely in order to make it circulate a little better), dig up our precious land, and cover it over with concrete. [3] Why must they go to such lengths to stimulate the economy? It is for no other reason than to facilitate the even greater activities of the secondary and tertiary industries, which results in the waste, contamination, and destruction of the city.
Chapter I Notes
1
It is possible to modernize agriculture (a primary industry) as well, but this becomes possible only with the intervention of the secondary and tertiary industries. Agriculture is meant to be in accord with the cycle of Nature; it is supposed to be ceaseless repet.i.tion.
2
Indeed, this has already been realized in j.a.pan, for the Ministry of Construction is building a gargantuan concrete embankment on Mt. Fuji, j.a.pan"s highest. (Translator"s note)
3
In comparison with construction bonds, the money-losing savings bonds are still better. This is because the savings bonds are not used to directly destroy the land (though it will come around to that sooner or later).
CHAPTER II
The Evils of the City
If we were to a.s.sume that the city brought no harm to either human beings or to the Earth, there would be no need for a discussion (or condemnation) of the spread of the cities as in the previous chapter. Yea, it would be verily the opposite: Just as most urbanites believe, the city is an ultimate good since it helps them achieve prosperity. We may even say, then, that urbanization must be aggressively promoted not only quant.i.tatively (in terms of the city"s boundless expansion), but also qualitatively (in the quest of ever greater modernization and technological advances).
But sorry to say, such is just not the case. The city is, in actuality, the very root of the evils that threaten the future of humanity and the Earth.
Though to the denizens of the city it is a good, since it allows them to pursue convenience, extravagance, and ease (that is, prosperity), that "good" is, minute by minute, turning into a future -- yea, a present -- evil, and we (the city dwellers first) will in time be exterminated by the city"s poisons. So that the city can pursue convenience, extravagance, and ease, we must be visited by the acc.u.mulation of waste, destruction, and contamination, which will, needless to say, end in a dreadful catastrophe.
The City"s Endless Plunder
The city itself is unproductive, and cannot supply its own needs.
No matter how many trinkets and gimcracks the manufacturing and processing industries make, this cannot be called production; we must in fact regard this as the consumption of resources and energy. Since the city is therefore nonproductive and non-self sufficient it must either rob all needed supplies from some other place or lose the ability to keep itself alive and functioning.
Urban residents will not be able to pursue extravagance and ease, let alone continue living.
Because it robs everything from another place the city causes trouble for others, and trashes the Earth is the process. Let us now try listing the various evils inherent in the city"s plundering ways.
Evil One
The first evil is deforestation.