A Revolution of the Mind

I have been toting the joys of the impending, slowly unfolding energy and green revolutions as of late. But I came across an interesting point, observed by one of my latest academic finds, a Professor Randall Crane, at UCLA, which stopped me dead in my tracks.

Many people go to specific grad schools to study under a certain academic, of whose work they admire. As I am currently self-taught and limited in my exposure to professionals in the planning field, I often find myself catch-as-catch-can. The majority of the people that I have come across, Peter Caliope, Kevin Lynch, Witold Rybczinski, Jane Jacobs, and Lewis Mumford are either dead, or too far removed for me with which to make much contact. I have been following Professor Crane's blog with great enthusiasm.

If I may compare his blog to mine, like me, Professor Crane utilizes his blog to expound on urban planning topics of interest to him and adds a hearty dose of levity to make it more palatable and accessible. And in his November 7th, 2008 entry entitled, "Is Admitting You Have a Problem the First Step Toward Recovery?"in his observation in Post #1 Professor Crane advised against "oversimplify[ing] how then to proceed in practice or theory- with respect to either mitigation or adaptation [concering big problems, such as an oil-dependent world]."

It is tempting to get ahead of ourselves and paint the world in big, utopian, swathes of hyperbole- of walkable communities, getting people out of their cars and into pedestrian friendly neighborhoods and cities, and/or said cars that will run on oil grown in a lab, or heck that run on happy thoughts!, having zero-emission transit, and a light bulb in every mud hut to the farthest reaches of Siberia, or even just Russia! Don't be late for the community circle of hand holding while singing "Kumbeya my Lord" Sorry, did I get a little cynical?

The point is, making any progress, takes time, often planning, and usually resources and lots of them. This is not my anal-retentive, type A side coming out, this is life. As Professor Crane wryly observed, "It would be great if that wasn't so, but as H.L. Mencken said, "For every complex problem, there is a simple solution. And it's wrong."

I continue to believe in life-altering change, I just hope that I am not foolish enough to believe that it will only happen with positive thinking. I know it will involve time, money, and lots of effort- both physical and mental. But as someone once observed, "anything worth having, is worth fighting for."