I was reading a review of a book by a Joel Hirschhorn called "Sprawl Kills: How Blandburbs Steal Your Time, Health And Money". A critic describes the book as "A brash, hard-hitting account of the forces that encourage sprawl and their impact on human health and well-being." Now, I haven't actually read the book, but the review gave me a good idea of what it's all about.

As you might imagine, it's all about the evils of suburbia and the "sprawl shills" who apparently force Americans to move to the suburbs against their free will. Not only that, these sprawl shills are actually killing Americans because living in the suburbs cause something called "Sedentary Death Syndrome". I guess guns don't kill people anymore, tract housing kills people.

The review and the book are full of hatred for the usual suspects:

"These shills are conservative, right-wing extremists who oppose giving Americans alternatives to sprawl living and automobile addiction," he argues. "They lie all the time about smart growth, even calling it a communist conspiracy. They lie about us having enough land. They lie about public transportation. They use government regulation to maintain an unfair marketplace favoring sprawl."

Isn't it possible that people move to the suburbs for reasons other than affordability? While Hirschhorn thinks the "blandburbs", as he so charmingly calls them, are places where:

"people are fundamentally separated from other people and from their jobs and virtually all other destinations and needs is fundamentally unhealthy," he writes. "Like swimming upstream, people can try many different strategies to be healthier but find themselves still stuck with an emptiness that may defy complete understanding."

Hence, he argues, the growing dependence on religion, plastic surgery, the Internet, medication and the drive to acquire more "stuff."

People want castles. They want yards. They want neighbors just a fence away. They want to build something. These are almost primal urges. The suburbs originally grew in the 40s and 50s when returning WWII GIs got married and had kids in record numbers. After spending some of the best years of their lives amidst despair and destruction, so many of them wanted to build something instead. Build a family. Build a neighborhood. There was no place in the city for a man to stake a claim anymore. I don't think the suburbs are an evil right wing plot. I think they're a reflection of the changing desires of Americans.

Some of us are just country mice at heart. Hirschhorn, on the other hand, is apparently a city mouse who found suburbia isolating. Instead of just accepting that experience as his experience, he uses it to damn the entire concept. I didn't like it so it's bad and the government should get rid of blandburbs. Chimpy McFlightsuit. Halliburton. Hitler.

This is another good reminder that extremists on both ends of the political spectrum show a complete disdain for people who live a lifestyle they don't agree with. Some on the far right hate urban gays. Likewise, many on the far left hate suburban soccer Moms. Those of us in the middle would be wise to ignore them both.