[Editor's note: We're excited to welcome Dan Bertolet of hugeasscity to PubliCola. He's merging with us, and he'll be writing about transportation, land use, and green urbanism. Email him at hugeasscity@publicola.net. HugeAssCola!]
Sustainable urbanism is the least of our worries. Case in point: The above photo. We’ll get back to that.
But apparently enough of you find sustainable urbanism (whatever that means) to be sufficiently scintillating that the overlords of PubliCola were compelled to seek out a supplemental source of deep thoughts on said topic to feed the expansion of their new media empire.
So here’s what they did: they gobbled up hugeasscity. Greed. Is. Good. Or something.
And now contemplate this: hugeasscity is to lose its PubliCola virginity with this very post. I’m sure we all want it to be meaningful. And yes, sustainable cities are the key to the future prosperity of humanity and all that. And yes, the PubliCola hugeasscity column can be counted on to deliver the goods on that topic for the next several decades or until PubliCola is bought out by Rupert Murdoch.
But this post is special. It wants to be about something deeper. Or else shallower. Or better, both at the same time.
Thankfully, the Coke machine in the photo spoke to me. ‘Cause the image on that mundane machine is so wrong on so many levels it hurts to think about it.
Seriously. What the hell kind of culture uses an image like that to sell stuff? It’s a very young child—a girl, I suppose we should assume—so what’s with all the glossy red lipstick? It’s sickeningly ambiguous. And that’s right, displaying this innocent babe sucking up nutritionless sugar water is a calculated strategy to get us all jazzed about what that machine has to offer. Sorry to get all potty-mouthed in my first post but let’s face it: That’s totally fucked.
On top of that, the U.S. has a widely discussed obesity epidemic. Still, simply because Coca-Cola’s executives have figured out a legal way to make piles of money, our culture can’t resist worshiping their success. Never mind that those piles come in exchange for empty calories derived from government subsidized corn. Yup, and right next to that machine is another one filled with corporate processed food. And both are conveniently located right next to the entrance to the building’s fitness center.
Which leads to a question: How can we possibly hope to create sustainable cities when we are completely embedded with sociopathic institutions that churn out abominations like that Coke machine and the stuff inside it?
Truth be told, I think Coca-Cola on ice is delicious. And it’s great to be here on PubliCola. And worry not, hugeasscity fans, there will be pictures of buildings.
