Carmageddon

This weekend's Carmageddon experience in Los Angeles says a lot about modern life in an overpopulated car-culture. Public officials are excited by their ability to cow the drivers of Los Angeles into avoiding the 10-mile stretch of Interstate 405 by using Homeland-Security-based methods of scaring the population through media blitz. That doesn't thrill me at all, but, I suppose, if you are a storm-trooper interested in suppressing public dissent any time soon, it would be good news.

If you are one of the starry-eyed who denies human overpopulation, you might read about the feared consequences of Carmageddon, which prompted these propaganda techniques to keep people away. You might also consider the environmental impact of the daily use of these freeways in the L.A. basin. If you continue your denial by saying emission controls and electric vehicles will inevitably solve the problems, I would suggest you take a course in Physics.

Carmageddon ...as a student of Buddhism, I do love the phonic double entendre... is a preview of coming attractions. Here in Boston, the Alford Street Bridge project is inconveniencing thousands of commuters daily but has not gotten high-profile attention because that bridge serves low-income communities. Currently. an Interstate 93 bridge project has led to massive delays and gridlock for those heading in and out of Boston from the north. How long will it be, with increasing population and diminished money applied to infrastructure due to a lowered tax base, before Carmageddon hits cities all over America? And, what forms of martial population control will authorities be forced to use to prevent rioting and mayhem?

I am amused by the gloating of Angelinos at their avoidance of this Carmageddon. If you are content with avoiding one disaster with techniques which may buy future problems for democracy and freedom of movement, perhaps you will feel right at home in a world of diminished resources and too many people.