…depressing American roadside detritus: tire stores, auto dealers, fast food restaurants and wholesale outlets all surrounded by asphalt and thousands of parked cars.
Steve from Virginia, Residue Is Our Economy:
It’s interesting to look at the world the way it is designed to be looked at in America, through a windshield. It is hard to escape the conclusion that we have ruined our country completely for the almighty dollar.
The highways themselves are the ‘Big Empty’ crammed with automobiles and semis, all going as fast as possible, all trying to live the ‘possibilities’ that are suggested by advertising. That is, racing down the ‘open road’ to experience the ‘thrill’ of driving for its own sake. The highways are therefore empty of everything other than what is required to focus concentration and reflexes … in order to keep oneself alive.
We are indeed rats in a (linear) maze. Why?
Integral to the highway ‘experience’ is the endless and futile highway repair process. The repairs are needed to keep up with ‘projected’ demand: the need for endless ‘growth’ suggests that the exponential doubling phase is here and now. In order to maintain the level of growth that carried forward up to the middle- aughts a duplication of the current Interstate highway system needs to be built and populated with a number of rolling metal boxes equal to what exists already. This on top of a system that is too large and complex to be properly maintained now.
For what, exactly? Do we exist to ‘serve’ growth or is it something that should serve us?
All that is needed is the escape from the thrall of the advertisers and their government lackeys.