Tadashi Nakashima
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Down With The Cities! Tadashi Nakashima
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DOWN WITH THE CITIES! Tadashi NAKASHIMA Copyright (c) 1996 Translation from the Japanese of "Toshi wo Horobose," first serialized in the periodical Kankyo Hakai, reprinted in 1992 in book form by the Japan Communal Society Association, and republished as a commercially available book in 1994 by Maijisha Publishing Co. This translation is of the earliest version, and does not reflect subsequent updates, additions, and changes by the author. Permission for posting on Project Gutenberg has been securied by the translator from all concerned parties. This translation is to be distributed freely throughout the world to anyone at all, and is not to be sold for commercial profit. Premission to distribute this text is granted by Project Gutenberg under license as stipulated by Michael S. Hart, Director. Mr. Nakashima (born 1920) is a self-sufficient farmer in the hill country of Gifu Prefecture, Japan. He entered the Army in 1939, and was in Taiwan at the end of the war. In 1945 he returned to his family farm and began farming. In 1954 Mr. Nakashima began raising free-range chickens, and embarked on the long process of developing his method of producing "natural eggs," for which he is now well known in Japan. About 1975 he started studying the writings of the Edo Period thinker Ando Shoeki. He has also written a book entitled "Minomushi Kakumei -- Dokuritsu Noumin no Sho" (The Bagworm Revolution -- A Book for Independent Farmers). The author has also written and published extensively on free-range chicken farming. The order of Japanese personal names follows East Asian custom: surname followed by given name. Some footnotes are the author's, and others are the translator's. The latter are identified by the notation "(Translator's note)" at the end of those footnotes. ================================================== ================================================== PREAMBLE Saying "Down with the cities!" is not a rash statement. If we do not get rid of the cities, the human race will disappear from the face of the Earth. The cities are none other than the source of all pollution, and the root of all evil. One may try to leave the cities as they are and get rid of only the pollution, but it will be wasted effort. Environmental destruction and pollution are caused by none other than the functioning of the urban machine; pollution is, we may say, the unavoidable respiratory function, metabolic function, and bowel movements of the cities. If we plug up the nose, mouth, and anus of a human being, is it possible to continue living? Therefore, if we are to banish urban pollution from the Earth, we must eliminate the cities themselves. CHAPTER I Urban Sprawl The cities are spreading out like amoebae. No matter what part of the world, and no matter what kind of political or economic system, the expansion of the cities is more than apparent wherever you look. If urbanization continues in this manner, the entire surface of the Earth will in time be covered with cities. I should explain that by urbanization I do not mean merely the spread of what we normally call "cities." In urbanization I include interurban buildups, those along train lines and roads, housing developments, tourist facilities at resorts, rural factories, and a host of other things. We must also consider the buildups in the centers of villages, and asphalt roads in (what is mistakenly considered to be) the boondocks as a kind of urbanization. In other words, the city is not just something that we distinguish from the country by region alone; we must also make a clear distinction in accordance with differences in industries (that is, class). To wit, the city is a place that is home to the secondary and tertiary industries, or is a place where the employees of such industries dwell. No matter how far back in the sticks one goes, if one finds anything relating to the secondary or tertiary industries -- such as public facilities or concrete river bank walls -- such a place must also be recognized as the city. Let us then examine the reasons for the unbounded, continuous expansion of the cities. Reason One Throughout the entire world, in no matter what country, "modernization" is the glorious banner under which all people gather. If something is done under the name of modernization, it is considered good, and if it stands in the way of modernization, it is automatically evil. Modernization: Expressed in different terms it is the prosperity of the secondary and tertiary industries. [1] And since these industries are based in the cities, modernization means urbanization. Right now, all around the world, increasing numbers of people are, with the aim of achieving modernization, engaging in the secondary and tertiary industries, and that is why we witness the further, inevitable expansion of the cities. As long as modernization is not negated as an evil, urbanization will continue unabated. Reason Two Modernization -- if we look at this in another way we see that it is the pursuit of Convenience, Extravagance, and Ease; it signifies the ceaseless advance toward infinite prosperity. And the pursuit of convenience, extravagance, and ease is none other than an expression of instinctual human greed -- we want to have it easier and eat more delectable cuisine, we want to do more stimulating things, we want objects that are rarer and more beautiful. Thus the secondary and tertiary industries, in manufacturing and supplying us with festivals and entertainment and trinkets and gewgaws, are able to scale the heights of prosperity, and the cities thereby continue their boundless expansion. Reason Three There is one other abettor of urbanization that we must not overlook: the bewitching power of the money economy. In order to make more money, the city manufactures more merchandise than necessary, and forces services down our throats. Charged with the economic mission known as the Pursuit of Profit, the secondary and tertiary industries work hard at money making, and this too leads to the expansion of the cities. The above three elements -- (1) a national policy of modernization, i.e., urbanization; (2) the instinctive desire of human beings for prosperity, i.e., urbanization; (3) the Pursuit of Profit, which propels the secondary and tertiary industries to make more and more money, i.e., urbanization -- combine to cause the increasing spread of the cities. This is symbolized in, for example, the construction industry. Urbanization is, in more concrete terms, the covering of everything with concrete. Whether buildings or roads or riverbanks or seashores, the rule of thumb in modern times is to make it out of concrete. There are, to be sure, occasional pea gravel gardens or dirt playing fields in the cities, but these are few and far between. Cities are made by smothering the ground with concrete. Indeed, the city can be understood as construction itself. Never-Ending Construction The world is full of construction officials, who, if they cannot plan some kind of project, are capable of nothing but yawning; the proprietors of construction companies, who, in order to make money, cannot rest from their labors for a minute; the pitiful part-time farmers who pay back their loans by engaging in construction work; the proprietors of cement and gravel companies who will be in a pickle if they cannot get someone to use the tons of building materials they have made; the truckers and the dealers in construction machinery and fuel for them; the big shot politicians like Tanaka Kakuei whose life work is pork barrel; the idiotic voters who weep for joy over the services brought in by construction (that is, urbanization)... With an arrangement like this, it is almost assured that, even if the vast oceans dry up, there will always be construction going on in the world. At this rate, it will not be that far in the future before they are carrying out construction work among the peaks of the Himalayas. There are some who will say, "Come now, they wouldn't go so far as to do such unnecessary work in the Himalayas," but if this is so, then when all the construction work in the world has been completed and there is no more to be done, is it possible to think that the Ministry of Construction will disband itself, that the construction companies will go belly up, that the cement companies will close down, or that the part-time farmers will hang themselves? There is no doubt that when such a time comes they will carry out needless construction work like covering over the peaks of the Himalayas with concrete. There will be no end to construction work, and consequently the urbanization of the Earth's surface will continue until the ground disappears entirely. [2] |
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