[GSBN] Arcosanti, an Early Eco-City, Faces the Future - NYTimes article

[Derek Roff]

I agree with you, Martin.  The author embodies a type of arrogant ignorance that I think has been increasing steadily in journalism, and in the rest of society, for the last forty years.  The author sets up himself, and by extension, his readers, as having greater knowledge, perspective, and global understanding than any of the subjects of the article.  The author asserts astonishing depth and breadth of vision.  As an example, he says of Soleri, "Upon meeting a visitor outside on a frigid morning, he raised his hand and waved it to the side, as if to say, “Kindly step out of my sunlight!”.  To me, this is projection to the point of delusion.  The author is presenting Soleri's internal dialog in the most negative way possible, including using the pronoun "it" for the "visitor".  

We see similar problems in many articles on green topics.  Most accomplishments are trivialized, many projects are ridiculed, and most actions are followed by the author's view of what should have been done instead.  I think it gives some people a kind of satisfaction and security to assert and/or read over and over again, that we already know more than all the experts, so we don't need to learn and change our thinking and our actions.  

I'm not a fan of Soleri's concrete ant farms, but at least he has been trying things and experimenting.  

Derelict


On Feb 17, 2012, at 6:47 AM, martin hammer wrote:

> Thought I would pass on this New York Times article about Arcosanti, the experimental ecological city in the Arizona desert, conceived and begun by Italian visionary architect Paolo Soleri in 1970.  
> 
> http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/16/garden/an-early-eco-city-faces-the-future.html?pagewanted=1
> 
> Judge the article yourself, but I find the tone troubling.  Mostly it alternates between positive (and not unrealistic) statements from current Arcosanti citizens, and backhanded denigrating comments from the writer.  


Derek Roff
derek at unm.edu




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