When we say "Down with the cities!" we do not at all mean that we should kill all the city dwellers. We are merely saying, "Give up your extravagance." We are saying, "Stop your insatiable plundering." We are saying, "Dismantle that mechanism of plunder." We are saying, "Let us create a society of austerity in which all practice direct cultivation." [34]
Why is it cruel and seditious to say "Give up being a robber"?
Why is it wrong to say "Stop driving others into poverty so that you can, by their sacrifices, live an extravagant life"?
Long ago the farmers, no longer able to bear the burden of harsh exploitation, sent representatives to the feudal lords to plead for reductions in the amount of rice they had to send as tribute. The reply was, "You insolents! Do you not fear your master? Such effrontery cannot be forgiven!" And they were decapitated. This is outrageous. The insolents were the feudal lords (idlers) who, in order to continue their own extravagance and gluttony, cruelly robbed the farmers. And their spirit of idleness comes all the way down to our modern city. Even now if we were to say, "Stop plundering for your own extravagance!"
"Stop destroying for your own ease!" or "Be satisfied with a life of austerity!" the city would surely consider us subversive elements, and look upon us with severe disapproval. The real subversive elements are the city dwellers themselves, who continue their rapacious and destructive ways as if it is their natural right, who nonchalantly continue their lives of convenience, while contentedly patting their fat bellies.
Should We Be "Thankful" for Urban Civilization?
As I mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, there are many who believe that the flourishing of civilization and culture is more important than anything else; that the city, the value of which is absolute, is contributing 100 percent to such; and that the city is sacred and must not be desecrated. Though I have already said quite a bit on this subject, I would here like to go into it in a little more detail.
For example, the believers say that the civilization of the Shinkansen train and the jet has made considerable contributions to politics, economics, and culture. A company of singers that performs in Tokyo at noon can give the same performance in Osaka in the evening. "Is this not a wonderful world we live in?" they say. Who are they kidding? This silver-tongued, idiotic lot of singers, these idle and gluttonous bloodsuckers, go from Tokyo to Osaka on the Shinkansen which wastes incredible amounts of energy, a.s.saults our ears with noise, and runs on rails over the concrete ties which are destroying the land. Then in Osaka they sing the same idiotic songs. Now, tell me what I should be thankful for. Should I be thankful for the activities of such people who, with each pa.s.sing minute, bring about the increasing devastation of the Earth?
Politicians can take jets to other countries, thereby enabling them to take care of important political affairs in little time, and the believers claim that this is a blessing of our modern urban civilization. They say that the ability of international traders to jet to other countries and quickly conclude business deals is due to the same. And they say that, thanks to the jet civilization, it is possible for old and young alike to freely go to other countries, learn more abut the world and soak up culture.
Let us not be fooled. When politicians hurry to other countries by jet and confer with other politicians, it is almost always to insure the progress and prosperity of their own countries. And as I have said before, progress and prosperity are inseparable from environmental contamination and the destruction of the Earth.
Should we really be thankful when politicians, in order to discuss such things, jet to other countries, destroy the ozone layer, waste energy, produce noise pollution, and do it all with tax money?
When international traders (the "economic animals") go to other countries, the purpose is of course to plunder the developing nations, or to suck up to the industrialized nations (although an overabundance of merchandise in their warehouses is clearly the result of squandering resources and squeezing labor to produce more than is necessary, they believe implicitly that this state has come about because other countries do not buy, so they try to hard-sell more by dumping). Should we be thankful that they hurry by jet to other countries so that they can cause trouble for the developing countries and cause more trade friction with the industrialized countries?
Everyone and his dog are going to foreign countries these days.
Quiz programs on television usually bait people with promises of foreign travel. What are all these people whizzing off to other countries for, on the jets that boast of being the worst polluters? Is it to see the rare beauty of foreign scenery? Are there no mountains in j.a.pan? Is there no ocean? There is little difference between the ocean at Boso and that in Hawaii. In the mountains near their homes there are places they are unfamiliar with. All those people who have no time to consider the appearance of a single tree, to feel the pathos of a single blade of gra.s.s -- what do they expect to experience abroad? Is it that the scale is different? If you pine after magnificence, then stand where you are and look up at the sun"s great orb. Lift your eyes to the night sky and gaze at the cosmos.
What? Your want to research foreign s.e.xual customs? You lecherous slobs! [35]
Travel abroad in the name of study and training is none other than for the purpose of learning the techniques of idleness and gluttony, or to make preparations for contamination and destruction. Even in j.a.pan there is much of this going on, but in whatever country it is the extreme of evil. Are we supposed to be thankful when people go abroad for sightseeing, s.e.x, or study, and then come back bug-eyed with amazement? Are we supposed to be thankful that, because of their activities, the Earth is more devastated minute by minute?
The "wonderful world we live in" is the "city." We must take drastic measures to get rid of the city.
Even If We Do Not Eradicate the Cities, They Are Fated to Perish
But the city has underestimated the situation. "If you think it"s possible to get rid of the cities, then go ahead and try," it says. "What can you accomplish in your frenzied condition?"
Well, this certainly is true. Once the city realizes that it is impossible to banish currency or get the farmers and co-ops to stop food shipments, it is natural to sit back and relax, for the city is right.
However, let us note once more that, though we cannot get rid of the cities by our own actions, the cities are in actuality bound to perish (I will treat this in a later chapter). The city"s underestimation of the situation will lead to its own fall in the near future.
The depletion of mineral resources, the drying up of the oil fields, nuclear war, the destruction and contamination of the environment, food shortages, economic panic, computers, robots, overproduction, backlogged inventories, trade friction, violence by the unemployed -- these will all lead to uninhabited cities.
But the city"s swaggering, unconcerned att.i.tude toward these things will only bring about a crises state that much sooner. As long as the city continues to underestimate the dangers, to waste without a moment"s afterthought, to make more nuclear weapons, to urbanize farmland, to change the forests to desert, to contaminate the land and the sea, to develop convenient machines, to produce an overabundance of goods -- as long as the city continues in this manner, how many more years can it live without a care?
The prophet Nostradamus, who has been 99 percent accurate, says that in July 1999 the Great King of Fear will come down from the sky, and humanity will face annihilation. This would seem to be right on target, since the cities are heading for destruction at full speed, and will probably perish at that very time.
Unfortunately, this bit of prophecy cannot but hit the bull"s eye.
There Will Be No Cities in the Twenty-First Century
The cities are bound to perish, and they have not long to live.
Even if we do nothing but stand by and twiddle our thumbs, the cities will suffer automatic annihilation.
There will be no cities in the twenty-first century. It is nonsensical to believe that in the next century the Earth will be covered with 20 million cities. This is almost the same as the estimate that, should the population continue to increase at the present rate (and a.s.suming the absence of epidemics, war, and starvation), population density 700 years hence will be such that there is one person per each square foot, including the mountains. If people estimate that in the twenty-first century 20 million cities will swell to cover the Earth, then it is for that very reason that the cities will perish. And if they estimate that the population density will become such that there is one person for every square foot of land, then it is for that very reason that humanity will perish.
There is no doubt that this will come to pa.s.s. The rails have been laid, and the city is rolling along right on course. From whatever angle, and with however sympathetic eyes, we look at the city, we cannot but conclude that it is bound to perish by reason of the urbanization phenomenon itself.
Even now, Nostradamus is surely watching from afar, boasting over the accuracy of his prediction, and laughing at the insatiable progress, prosperity, and obsessive delusions of us human beings.
I will say it once more: The cities are bound to perish. Even if I were to swing at the ground with a maul and miss, there is no mistake in predicting so. Even if the sun rises in the west, and even if the rivers run upstream, there is no way to stop the annihilation of the cities. Verily, in the next century the city must make reparations for its 5,000 years of wickedness.
The Only Way to Save Ourselves and the Earth Is to Cut Ourselves Off from the City
But if the cities are bound to perish anyway, why not just let things go on as they are? many will say.
The fact is, we cannot just sit around and wait for it to happen, because it will then be too late. The cities are trying to ruin the whole Earth in order that they themselves will perish. We must not allow ourselves to be dragged down with them.
Though it may appear cowardly, we must cut ourselves off from the cities before that time comes.
Cutting ourselves off from the cities will first of all help prevent their further expansion, and begin their contraction. And this is not impossible, for our ancestors long ago did the same thing. Let us not allow this to be a mere dream; let us try to use that one slim chance given humanity and the Earth.
Now is the Time to Escape from the City
I now appeal to the people in the city to give up those white collar jobs and get out of the city.
If even one of you leaves the city and takes up farming, that makes possible the contraction of the city by 1/9,000,000th. It also makes possible the lessening of the city"s evils by the same 1/9,000,000th.
Escape from the city is not only the victim"s flight from the city, which he feels cannot last much longer, but it is also a withdrawal from the position of the malefactor -- those accomplices of evil, the city dwellers who refuse to budge.
And I also want to appeal to those in the farming villages to stop producing vast quant.i.ties of food, and to embark on self-sufficient farming.