Fifty

Boston seen from Boston University, 1963

This morning there was a sentimental piece on local public radio about John F. Kennedy. This month will mark fifty years since the popular U.S. President's assassination. The focus of this morning's segment was JFK's love of his native Massachusetts. 

I was 13 in 1963. And I remember what was lovable about Massachusetts in 1963. Much of it no longer exists due to population growth and urban sprawl. 

In 1963, a ride to Cape Cod was a rural adventure. The territory between Boston and the Cape Cod Canal was covered in fields and woods, punctuated by occasional cranberry bogs. Now golf course, shopping malls, industrial parks and commuter developments line the roads from Boston to Cape Cod. The Cape itself was still rural in atmosphere then. Beaches were still dotted with the occasional mammoth hotel with rambling verandas, built for Victorians. Mushroom motels were just beginning to pop up. 

In 1963, the drive west on Route 2 through Cambridge quickly meandered through truck farms in Belmont and Lexington, now pricey suburbs. Hill towns further out were surrounded by active farms. Pastures were populated by herds of cows and grazing horses right by the road. The towns themselves were still commercial villages. Solid brick settlements around paper mills and factories, which still made product here in Massachusetts. 

In 1963, a ride north to Vermont, New Hampshire or Maine was an easy step into the 19th Century. Traveling up logging roads on the White Mountains was tricky business, but afforded the experience of wilderness. My family traveled there occasionally to a log cabin on a pristine kettle pond. Wood stove, hand-pumped water and outhouse. This city kid loved it, despite the fear of encountering a bear when rushing to the outhouse. Now that same trip would lead to a time-share in a crowded condo development. 

In fifty years, the population of Massachusetts has climbed relatively slowly, from 5.3 to 6.6 million (2012). That is still approximately a 20% increase. However, New Hampshire's population has increased from 649,000 in 1963 to 1.3 million in 2012. Doubled! 

These figures will not seem staggering if you are young. However, as someone who has live with the visible changes of burgeoning population, I am sensitized to its effects on quality of life for everyone. Corporate capitalism, unbridled by scientific governance, feeds off overpopulation. More houses. More everything. More trash. More sewage. The real equations of capitalist "growth" do not yield a net gain for humanity. They yield and elevated lifestyle for fewer and fewer predators.

My mind hurts when I extrapolate to the environment fifty years from now. When I see an insulated 13-year-old on the subway with ear buds and smart phone I see the self-protective consciousness of the future. When environment becomes unbearable beyond our control, we draw within. This is simply human behavior. A world with a crowded withdrawn population is a world ripe for totalitarianism or violent anarchy.