Anyone who follows American politics and policy is probably aware of how the Democrats and the Left overall have an enormous fondness for high-speed rail. They often lament about how America is practically a "Third World country" in comparison to foreign countries, such as those Europe, which had trains back in the 1980s that make current Amtrak trains look Stone Age, or Japan and China. As Europe has, they want America to have a a large, across-continent high-speed rail system, so people can just hop on a train that goes 200+ mph and ride it to any of the major cities.
Now the main argument given by those in favor of high-speed rail is the environmental benefits. High-speed electric trains don't put out carbon emissions or pollution like automobiles or belch out huge quantities of carbon like airliners do (yes, the coal-fired powerplants that would power such a train system put out carbon, but the idea here is to eventually replace these with alternative sources of energy). And on this, they are probably sincere.
But I think that, subconsciously, there is more to it then that. The Left tend to be prone to utopian ideals. And utopias usually always mean society functioning in some specific manner that someone dreams up (this is why one person's utopia is always another person's nightmare). And trains are part of this utopian ideal. Why? Well, look at how the future is often portrayed in science-fiction. Things like cars are fully-automated. They drive themselves and highways are also fully-automated. The people themselves do not control anything. The reason for this is because to a utopian, modern society sucks. It has too many problems. Too many things simply not controlled or working efficiently.
For example, in Arthur C. Clarke's 3001: The Final Odyssey (which takes place in the year 3001), everyone is required to shave their head and wear a form of monitoring device on their heads, so the government can monitor you 24/7. People are permitted to wear a wig over the monitoring device, but otherwise, everyone is thus bald. This is an example of utopianism. I'd love to see a government try to make that work without becoming or being a totalitarian dictatorship. Clarke, like many such dreamers before him, assumes that the government will be wise, caring, and benevolent. Why this is so is never really explained.
Or we could look at the show Seaquest, that 1990s TV show that was like a version of underwater Star Trek. In it, hamburgers are illegal. Why? Environmental reasons, global warming, etc...again another utopian ideal, as I suppose everyone eats soy or whatnot in replacement of meat. And speaking of Star Trek, that too is a great example of the utopian fantasy gone wild. Anyone think they drive cars around on Earth in the universe of Star Trek? There are no more companies supposedly, no market. Basic needs are supposed to be taken care of (the communist fantasy), and I suppose there are either high-speed trains, or people can just be beamed around the planet.
A final example I'd say is the movie "I, Robot," with Will Smith. Note how there are no more fuel-powered vehicles, all vehicles drive themselves, and when you park somewhere, a huge machine comes out and snatches your vehicle and stores it in some huge vault.
Okay, so going back to high-speed trains, I think they too fall into this utopian ideal of controlling everything in society. Having people drive around in cars all over the place is just too disorganized. There is no central planning element at all. if you seriously think about it, the Democrats I highly doubt would let people drive around in cars if it wasn't required. Cars would be reserved specifically to police, fire services, etc...and for driving around government officials. The proletariat could never be trusted to handle such vehicles. We can see this in how the Left would love to raise gas taxes drastically to force people to drive small vehicles. And high-speed trains that are run by the state, where you don't have people driving all over the place whenever and wherever they want, are a way of helping achieve this as well.
I think it just bugs the daylights out of the Left how here in America, we have the Interstate Highway System, which allows people to drive everywhere and anywhere, and cheap gas and gas-guzzling SUVs, as opposed to the European model of very expensive gasoline, people who do drive having very tiny cars, usually diesel-fuel powered, and people having access to high-speed rail to go everywhere, which of course runs on the government's schedule and probably obtains part of its subsidies from the high fuel taxes.
The Leftist utopian dream is one of tiny, ultra-fuel-efficient cars, vast public transportation services, a massive welfare state, and so forth. High-speed trains are a crucial part of this utopian dream. Rarely do you ever see a utopian-modeled future of fuel-powered SUVs and pickup trucks where people can still drive wherever they want to on the Interstate.
No comments:
Post a Comment