Assumptions

I've noticed a trend amongst us all to question the established ways of doing business. A recent NYTimes column by David Brooks (What Life Asks of Us) mentioned Harvard's wish to have students question the established ways of approaching problems. Brooks followed with an argument for institutions as sort of tradesmen who pass on valuable practical skills and wove an argument for conservatism vs. individualism (liberalism in his view) which I found fault with. I posted a comment suggesting that since Socrates, to ask questions was the conservative, institutional way to educate and that the cult of the individual was a completely separate matter (comment #200).

I believe it is a great time for us to question whether we need long mortgages; whether we need large houses; whether we need to import our building supplies and whether we need to build with the usual materials. Do we need a boiler or oil at all (No)? Do we need to live too far to walk to school and work?

In my previous post, 'Sustainable Plato', I argued for a hybrid life that combines living with the earth in a natural, pre-industrial manner, while taking advantage of the great inventions of the present.

It's time to make good on this idea and build earth friendly, technically savvy structures and towns.