The irredeemable sins

..of hypocrisy and greed come home to roost in Detroit, a city that has endured a man-made catastrophe that dwarfs what nature did to New Orleans, and bad nurture to New York. This film is a must-see for all Americans, who for too long have ignored these problems - will every city have to crumble into nothingness before we confront the root cause of this urban apocalypse? The logic of Detroit's fall is written in crumbling stone - Detroit makes cars, Detroit needs labor, blacks need jobs, whites hate blacks, cars enable whites to leave, blacks destroy the city they inherited, whites make a fetish of greed and venality, cars don't sell, industry collapses, a city dies. Then another, and another, and another. Seeing this film left me with a feeling of total despair - there is nothing to be done - the original sin of slavery will never be redeemed. This is the price we pay. I would as soon give it back to the natives of this land with an apology, and go home. But, this is home. Oh well.

It is a good thing the gas will soon be too expensive to use. The car is a sort of concentrated acid hurled into the face of cities. Let it die. Let us all walk off the edge of the earth.

-drl