G.,
Your personal biases and hang ups are more of a prison
than anyone in the so called oligarchy could construct. I'm
tired of these troll posts.
At Rutgers, every undergrad on campus had a twin bed.
Almost anyone who wanted a sexually active relationship, who
was capable of social graces, had one. For two people who
want to fuck, you'll fuck anywhere. Don't like a twin bed?
Sleep on a futon or blanket on the floor. I've personally
witnessed five person orgies on a twin bed and on a dorm
floor. Expand your mind. For me, this model you invoke of
monogamous sleeping arrangements is far from my personal
nirvana. Being able to sleep two to a bed and having a good
sex life have never been correlated for me.
Furthermore, look how my grandparents immigrant generation
lived. They'd squeeze families with children into rooms not
much bigger, and yet had no problems making more kids.
There's so many fucked up ways that our society and
government puts us at a disadvantage: sexism, classism,
racism, and the ugly specter of lowered expectations. Moral
mores and prudery. On and on. But making up new ways the
"oligarchy" are "fucking us" isn't helpful. If you don't
want to live in 200 sq ft, fine, but I would think its a
hell of a lot better than living on 8 sq ft of
wet cardboard. If you don't want to eat bugs, fine, but
don't ignore thousands of years of grasshopper consumption
by Jews (locusts and grasshoppers are specifically
enumerated as Kosher!) and Mesoamericans.
If you don't like the oligarchy, fine, but this made up
world with your rules is just your own oligarchy or
dictatorship, and I don't want to live in that world either.
These modest proposals are not helping me find how to
better participate at sudoroom.
Matt (the other one, hbergeronx)
On Monday, May 20, 2013, GtwoG PublicOhOne wrote:
No-Sex Apartments.
(Creative commons, with attribution to "G.")
In cities across the USA, a new "solution" to affordable
housing is
being promoted: micro-apartments of less than 200 square
feet. New
York's conrol-freak in chief, Mayor Bloomberg, is
promoting them (New
Yorkers call them "Bloom Boxes"). A developer in San
Francisco is
promoting them. And developers in Seattle WA are building
them by the
hundreds.
The Seattle apartments were recently covered in a CBS News
article, here:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57582327/tiny-apartments-are-creating-a-big-backlash-in-seattle/
If you look at the picture, something immediately stands
out: a TWIN BED.
As the article says, "...(the) apartment comes with a
small private
bathroom, a microwave and a mini-refrigerator. There's
just enough room
for a twin bed, a neatly hung rack of clothes and
shelves." (There's
not even room for a desk, so forget about working from
home: it's back
to the plantation for you, worker-bee.)
And therein lies the catch, or more accurately the
"nudge," to use the
Newspeak word for "manipulation."
A twin bed is sufficient for sleeping, but not sufficient
for a regular
sex life with others, much less a stable relationship.
Sure, you can manage it occasionally, but for the long
term it's right
out. Squeezing two people into a bed meant for one is
miserable,
particularly in the hot summer.
This is one form of "birth control" that won't be
controversial with the
Vatican or other right-wing religious denominations. I
suppose that
also qualifies as a "feature." (We won't mention the fact
that you can
carry on a satisfactory solo sex life in a twin bed, lest
the twin beds
be replaced with "stand-up beds" consisting of straps on
the wall.)
There's no need for the Oligarchy to make an explicit No
Sex rule. They
don't have to, when they can just "nudge" the architecture
to enforce
that outcome by "nudging" people who might think to
disobey.
Best of all (from the Oligarchy's perspective), there's
nothing to
revolt against. A revolt against a type of architecture
is like a
revolt against traffic jams or weather: there's no obvious
evil-doer to
hurl ballots and tomatoes at.
The Oligarchy likes micro-apartments because they are more
profitable
per square foot of building, compared to apartments that
let you have a
bed big enough for two people, and a fridge big enough to
let you keep
enough food that you don't have to go shopping every day.
The working masses (that would be us) who are being lined
up to live in
these boxes would do well to recognize that they are also
about the same
size as prison cells.
The only difference is that you have the key to your cell,
just like
inmates in "honor system prisons" for white collar
criminals. That, and
there isn't a guard staring at you whilst you poop, though
I'd be
careful about the tiny apartments that come with internet
and TV service
included (no choice of carriers either), as the "smart
sensors" won't be
far behind.
Smaller houses and apartments are of course part of a
viable approach to
sustainability: primarily through lower energy consumption
and proximity
to public transport. Some years ago, a close friend and I
came up with
various designs for micro-houses, from about 160 square
feet, up to
about 400 - 500 square feet. A building with a 500 square
foot
"building footprint" was sufficient for a family of four.
We were
designing for the sake of sustainability, and for the
ability of
individuals and communities to build these houses for
themselves at low
cost.
But as with eating bugs, it's one thing to do it by the
choice of your
own free will, quite another to do it by way of getting
mercilessly
milked by the Oligarchy. Especially when the Oligarchs
continue to live
in 12,000 square foot (and larger) mansions with sprawling
lawns on all
sides.
What the world can't afford, is the Oligarchy. Darwin,
take note!
-G.
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