- Published: September 15, 2022
- Updated: September 15, 2022
- University / College: Stanford University
- Level: Masters
- Language: English
- Downloads: 22
Article by James Howard Kunstler
In this article by James Howard Kunstler, the emphasis has been on criticizing the American way of living and how the Americans have shaped up their lives and the places where they reside in a very stupefying way. What amazes Kunstler is that the Americans have dismantled a number of buildings and turned them into scrap yards because all they thought of was the Disneyland, where they could go at the end of the week and enjoy for all the time that they could. There was a serious lack of planning within the administration regimes and no one paid heed to what America would be in the future and such is the magnanimous effect that the America of present has become a piece of misery and ugliness, according to Kunstler. He suggests that no one thought of understanding the architecture that America could have established rather what happened was that roads were widened and this resulted in huge traffic jams at the present, which seem to mean a lot of tension and apprehension left, right and center. Kunstler has given the example of Walt Disney in this article as he thinks that Walt Disney understood the American psyche and thus he constructed something which could relate with the way the Americans used to live in and enjoy their freedom. He has touched upon the aspects related with the postwar decades where America could not come to terms with its own basis, breaking all the rules that were previously coined and turning towns into urban garbage lands.
I believe that Kunstler has been pretty critical of the American geography and has just touched the construction aspects related with America itself. He has not linked this article with the advancements that America has had in different fields of life, so much so that it has come to be known as the Super Power of the World. But then again Kunstler has been vocal at making a point or two which could go down well with the town planners and architects since there is still a lot of room for improvement within the said fields and the matter pertaining to ugliness of the American skyline is somewhat debatable as I have understood it. The urban sprawls have demanded that long towers be built across the cities and the people be inhabited across a set of different areas whilst being earmarked for living purposes, industrial concerns and the like. Thus the debate is somewhat mind boggling since Kunstler must know about the facts before making a point about the actual basis of the American urban sprawls. Also the position related with the American postwar madness is somewhat ambiguous as Americans knew what they would like for their own selves, however it is a wholly different point of view what they knew for sure about the nation and the country and how best the same could benefit them in the future. All said and done, I seem to somewhat agree as well as negate with the points that have been made by James Howard Kunstler in this article.