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The
PLAIN TRUTH
of any other cívílízation.... We are
mounted on a tíger and it ís hard to
imagine how we might dismount"
(
America the
V
anishing,
Ed.
by
Samuel
R. Ogden, Stephen Greene Press, 1969,
pp. 222, 229).
Whether ít's creeping bumper to
bumper clown a freeway
m
chokíng
traffic four lanes abreast, or pouríng
coa! into power plants whích hope to
produce
18
tríllíon kilowatt hours of
electricity in the United $tates alone
thís decade, or thrustíng skyward in a
roaring
747
for a destínatíon halfway
around the globe, mankínd is mounted
on a "go-go-go" mechanistic tiger.
"Grow With
Us"
Syndrome
Yet, who wíll be the first to dismount
the tiger and gíve up the many "ben–
efits" of a growing economy?
We want autos and airplanes, free–
ways and concrete skyscrapers, bígger
homes and more of them, higher sala–
ríes and greater production of factories.
The goal ís an even higher Gross
National Product (where money spent
to clean up ill side effects of industrial
output is counted in the GNP but a
farmer's produce grown for his family
is
rTOt
counted
!) .
All these have become the measure of
our success and progress as a free enter–
prise system - a monument to our
"come grow with us" syndrome. Yet,
this philosophy largely neglects the base
of any permanently productive society
- uoderstanding of and respect for the
good
earth
and the soil that supports aH
of us.
Today, sorne few are seeing the fol–
lies of "growth for growth's sake":
ever-increasíng population, over-concen–
tration in giant urban gluts, which have
spawned such coined expressions as
Bosnewash (for the projected strip city
spanning today's Boston, New York,
and Washington D.C.), and Sansan
( for a strip
city
from San Francisco to
San Diego, including Los Angeles) ,
and Chípitts (for Chícago-Pittsburgh).
And an even more recent coined
word ends this massive expansion of
suburbia with "Urbicide."
Sorne few people are
leaving
the
cities, seeking a new and simpler way of
life. They are fed up with smog and
traffic, with urban cocktails f roro the
July
1971
tap, with prices out of sight and still
climbíng, with increased dehumaniza–
tion of society - reducíng men to
machines for productíon of
"X"
aroounts of goods and services, rather
than minds to create, to grow, to love
and be loved, to express the full gamut
of human emotions. Ironically, these
were the same people who earlier
flocked to the city to attain success, eco–
nomic stability, education, and happi–
ness. Many left the dull, degrading
"farro life" of just a few decades ago to
escape its boredom, its poverty, its drab,
unchallenging existence.
Since World War
11,
it is estimated
that the number of people living on
fanns in the United States has decreased
from 30 million to a present level of
sorne
1O
míIlion people, or about
5%
of our total population.
But what caused farro children and
farmers, by the millions, to leave the
way of life of our ancestors and flock to
the cities?
And, paradoxically, why are many
others today reversing this trend, search–
ing for the "good life"
away
from
cíty
f
rustrations
?
Today, there is a veritable "back to
the earth" movement of various groups.
Many even successful individuals are
giving up careers to seek the "simple
life."
Recapturing a Simple Life
Recently, there have been scattered
reports of executives, musicians, movie
stars, and others leaving their high–
paying jobs and positions for
a
much
simpler way of life they themselves
would have spurned
before
fame and
"success" carne to them.
One such individual, the singer
Glenn Yarbrough, said good-bye to his
musical career in the following words:
"When
1
was a kid, 1 figured líke
everyone else does that the more money
I had, the more things I'd possess and
the happier l'd be," he said. "Well, 1
was lucky. I obtained the material
things when I was relatively young.
And it didn't take long to figure out
what a ridiculous goal that was," he
continued.
Such a philosophy goes contrary to
the popular belief that more money and
more material possessions equals more