Ever wonder what happened to all the old Commies and Marxists? I think I've found them. They've become strident environmentalists. Much like how the Commies of old were willing, eager & ultimately able to force others to conform to their twisted vision of an ideal society, environmentalist wackos are gleefully rubbing their hands together, dreaming of a day we'll have to live a life without cars.

What does this future look like? Madison's (of course) own Jan Sweet who:

fronts a Madison group called Cities Without Cars, devoted to reducing oil dependence and strategizing ways to survive when oil is no longer available.

“Maybe when the car you have right now reaches its maturity, you don’t get another one,” he suggests. In the future he foresees, with more co-housing, groups of 25 families could share one or two cars.

He has proposed building new housing without parking and a ban on auto ads. He’s called for capping buildings at five stories in anticipation of the day when there won’t be enough electricity to run elevators. He’d plant fruit trees around town to stave off famine from breakdowns in the food supply.

Co-housing with 25 families sharing a car? That sounds like a modern day collectivist farm to me. This is insanity. Fruit trees to stave off a famine? In Madison? Although Sweet claims not to be a global-warming activist, he must be if he thinks it's ever going to be warm enough for fruit trees to save starving future Madisonians.

I realize we don't have an endless supply of cheap oil. We should do what we reasonably can to conserve energy while we try to find affordable alternative fuel sources. But some of these environmentalists aren't interested in conservation and alternatives, they're interested in taking us back to stone age. Much like how the Khmer Rouge romanticized peasant life, people like James Howard Kunstler idealize urban communities. Kunstler doesn't want to find new affordable energy sources that would help maintain our way of life. He wants to rebuild American life, not surprisingly, to suit his own vision of utopia:

I hope we can overcome our tendencies to try to get something for nothing and to engage in wishful thinking. The subject of hope itself is an interesting one. College kids on the lecture circuit always ask me if I can give them some hope. Apparently, they find this view of the future to be discouraging. It may mean fewer hours playing Grand Theft Auto with a side order of Domino's pepperoni pizza, but there are many positive implications for our lives in the future. We may once again live in places worth caring about, where beauty and grace are considered everybody's birthright. We may work side-by-side with our neighbors, on things that are meaningful. Instead of canned entertainments, we may hear the sounds of our own voices making music, see the works of our own dramatists and dancers.

Maybe Kunstler is right and we're all screwed. Or maybe, as with the Green Revolution, we'll figure our way out of the problem. Maybe I'm just saying this because I'm a non-coastal American who worships at the altar of unearned riches, but I'm going to bet on progress. And if worses comes to worse, I've got bikes and a kayak. I'll also be on the lookout for a pear tree.