I agree with a lot of what you have said but I want to counter you on two points.
Stack 'em and pack 'em apartments: if by that you mean regular apartments, and not vacation flats for the rich that sit empty, then you should be in favor of this. With a high human population, high-density living is the only ethical way to live on the land unless you're a farmer. If you farm, it makes sense for you to have land. If you don't, it doesn't make sense to chop down wild lands and pave prairies so highways and suburbs can sprawl.
By this I don't mean American industrial agriculture, Monsanto, etc. I mean actual small-scale farmers who enrich the land they work with. It makes sense for the Amish to have land. It doesn't make sense for *me* to have land.
Suburbs: you might like looking at your yard, but something got bulldozed so you could have it. The birds are nesting on power poles because their prior nesting is gone. (Btw I've seen the sandhill migrations in Nebraska. That was one of the coolest things I've ever experienced.)
Someone living in an apartment and busing or walking to work destroys the environment way less than a suburbanite, even if they don't care two hoots about the environment in terms of their personal politics. That's one of the big things that Americans need to wrestle with. The American Dream and the American way of life are quite frankly crazy town in the eyes of most of the rest of the world.
One final note: apartments are very shoddily made in the US. The walls are thin and the ceilings are only nine feet. You can't escape your neighbors. It's pretty miserable. Contrast that to my flat that has four-meter ceilings and thick enough walls I never hear my neighbors unless the kids full-on scream. There is a reasonable way to live high-density that allows for human dignity, and that can readily be found in the world, just not in America.
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timeasmymeasure
Re: Reply to materialist atheist
Date: 2021-05-14 01:23 pm (UTC)I agree with a lot of what you have said but I want to counter you on two points.
Stack 'em and pack 'em apartments: if by that you mean regular apartments, and not vacation flats for the rich that sit empty, then you should be in favor of this. With a high human population, high-density living is the only ethical way to live on the land unless you're a farmer. If you farm, it makes sense for you to have land. If you don't, it doesn't make sense to chop down wild lands and pave prairies so highways and suburbs can sprawl.
By this I don't mean American industrial agriculture, Monsanto, etc. I mean actual small-scale farmers who enrich the land they work with. It makes sense for the Amish to have land. It doesn't make sense for *me* to have land.
Suburbs: you might like looking at your yard, but something got bulldozed so you could have it. The birds are nesting on power poles because their prior nesting is gone. (Btw I've seen the sandhill migrations in Nebraska. That was one of the coolest things I've ever experienced.)
Someone living in an apartment and busing or walking to work destroys the environment way less than a suburbanite, even if they don't care two hoots about the environment in terms of their personal politics. That's one of the big things that Americans need to wrestle with. The American Dream and the American way of life are quite frankly crazy town in the eyes of most of the rest of the world.
One final note: apartments are very shoddily made in the US. The walls are thin and the ceilings are only nine feet. You can't escape your neighbors. It's pretty miserable. Contrast that to my flat that has four-meter ceilings and thick enough walls I never hear my neighbors unless the kids full-on scream. There is a reasonable way to live high-density that allows for human dignity, and that can readily be found in the world, just not in America.