Comments on: A cycle? Or an explosion? http://citizenreporter.org/2007/11/a-cycle-or-an-explosion/ Under-reported news by a Portuguese-American, activist-journalist based in Amsterdam. Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:21:30 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: bicyclemark http://citizenreporter.org/2007/11/a-cycle-or-an-explosion/comment-page-1/#comment-161020 bicyclemark Wed, 28 Nov 2007 01:16:24 +0000 http://bicyclemark.org/blog/2007/11/a-cycle-or-an-explosion/#comment-161020 Chris! I know it sounds lame but in the face of such darkness your existence gives me hope. Detroit may indeed say alot about the state of the world. I should go find some good books about the motorcity. Chris! I know it sounds lame but in the face of such darkness your existence gives me hope. Detroit may indeed say alot about the state of the world. I should go find some good books about the motorcity.

]]> By: Chris Weagel http://citizenreporter.org/2007/11/a-cycle-or-an-explosion/comment-page-1/#comment-161012 Chris Weagel Tue, 27 Nov 2007 21:00:45 +0000 http://bicyclemark.org/blog/2007/11/a-cycle-or-an-explosion/#comment-161012 Part of me thinks it's a cycle, but a difference of scale. Humans have never had systems this large and interconnected before. The problems remain the same but get hugely inflated. But another part of me thinks it's something else. A real dark, malignancy of greed, shortsightedness, and insanity. It's something best summed up with the current status of Detroit, the city I'm near. It was once the manufacturing powerhouse of the nation, the engine that powered the modern world we inhabit. This region also served as the foundation for the modern labor movement in America, creating and sustaining a strong middle class. Today, the city has refocused itself around a "casino-based economy." There are three giant, Vegas style casinos open or under construction in the midst of urban degredation most Americans and many Europeans cannot imagine. Obviously, there's more to all of it than this. But there you go. Part of me thinks it’s a cycle, but a difference of scale. Humans have never had systems this large and interconnected before. The problems remain the same but get hugely inflated.

But another part of me thinks it’s something else. A real dark, malignancy of greed, shortsightedness, and insanity.

It’s something best summed up with the current status of Detroit, the city I’m near. It was once the manufacturing powerhouse of the nation, the engine that powered the modern world we inhabit. This region also served as the foundation for the modern labor movement in America, creating and sustaining a strong middle class.

Today, the city has refocused itself around a “casino-based economy.” There are three giant, Vegas style casinos open or under construction in the midst of urban degredation most Americans and many Europeans cannot imagine.

Obviously, there’s more to all of it than this. But there you go.

]]>