The Nirvana of Cultural Self-Parody Attained!

Is there anything wrong with driving down out of the Berkeley hills to the UC Berkeley campus in one's Prius, watching regenerative braking fill one's battery and the mpg indicator go to lazy-eight, looking over San Francisco Bay in the warm (but not too hot) summer sun, while listening to Feist pumped from the iPhone through the car's speakers?

Could any higher degree of post-industrial twenty-first century techno-enviro left-coast lifestyle self-righteous enlightenment possibly be attained?

Comments

[Nathan]

bumper sticker "kill your tv"

[Cranky Observer]

Did you have an organic fair trade shade-grown coffee purchased at a community-owned coffee shop that pays all employees $12/hr in the cupholder?

Cranky

[Benjamin]

The best part is that it's all downhill -- both ways!

[Barry]

Hmmm, coasting downhill on a $1,000 bicycle made of composites which would have been Top Secret in the 1980's.

The coffee's a good one, but let's up it to Yerba Matte, or some exotic nutrient-laden, antioxidant-pumped, exotic-fruit-filled, caffeine-free tea made by cold-brewing from spring water.

[azurite]

Yes, riding a recumbent bicycle down same hill w/older cellphone in pocket that does nothing but take calls and do voicemail and said phone was purchased at a garage sale for $1. What you describe is what I seemed to remember has been labeled "crunchy con" or a conservative who allegedly "cares" about the environment. But not to the extent of giving up any of the latest technology, w/no consideration of environmental cost. But who may buy a Prius (but may keep a McPickup at home to haul the power boat, 5th wheel), buy organically grown produce, bamboo or certified og cotton clothing, etc.

I'm waiting for yuppies/crunchy cons to start buying fur again because it's "natural."

[Praedor Atrebates]

Any Nirvana-ishness, parody or not, by the fact that in this descent down the hill you are heading, in fact, to the place that hired, and sweetly cradles, John Yoo.

[Praedor Atrebates]

Hell's bells, what a butchery I made of my last mistyped missive. What I MEANT to say: Any Nirvana-ishness, parody or not, in the described situation is utterly destroyed by the fact that the descent down the hill is towards the place that hired, and sweetly cradles, one John Yoo. Or does that make it even a BETTER Nirvana of cultural self-parody?

[andres]

Brad, having read so many of your posts over the years, I think I can confidently state that _you_ don't need any of the California/hippyish/green accoutrements in order to sound like a self-righteous know-it-all. But hey, with an economics Ph.D, and Harvard thrown in to boot, I guess you're entitled ;-)

[jerry]

In the far off distance, can you see the walls of Star Fleet Academy rising on the grounds of the Presidio?

[howard]

if we're going to show off our degree of self-righteous enlightenment, i could, without trying, name 100 musicians who should be pumped through your speakers than Feist (who is fine, don't get me wrong, but no Nirvana and not nirvana, either).

[Praedor Atrebates]

I think I can confidently state that _you_ don't need any of the California/hippyish/green accoutrements in order to sound like a self-righteous know-it-all. But hey, with an economics Ph.D, and Harvard thrown in to boot, I guess you're entitled ;-) Does it mean anything that virtually everyone in any position of power and influence in the Bush II (and Bush I) admins was a Harvard, Princeton, or Yale grad? I believe we need to start seeing people from Colorado State University, University of Utah, Kansas University, Purdue, etc, in these positions so we can determine if the total fuckitude that has been wrought by the previous alums in government is, in fact, a factor of whether or not they acquired degrees from an Ivy League skoo.

[save_the_rustbelt]

Certainly the coffee is important, with a lunchbox full of organically grown veggies.

Too many people involved in our public policy development live in dreamlands like SF and Cambridge, and know little of reality, which is frightening ideed.

Enjoy the dream though, and the veggies.

[tito]

> Could any higher degree of post-industrial twenty-first century techno-enviro left-coast lifestyle self-righteous enlightenment possibly be attained?

You could then blog about it...

[Brad DeLong]

And tito wins...

[Bruce Webb]

"Too many people involved in our public policy development live in dreamlands like SF and Cambridge, and know little of reality"

S-T-R, I'll grant you Cambridge, if you mean the one in England, although people there could probably show you places that would not be particularly 'dreamy'. Cambridge Mass? Well keep it tight around Harvard Yard and maybe, but you are a bridge away from Boston. Metropolitan life tends to be the same most places, if you don't have street sense and an understanding of where you are that dream can transform into nightmare pretty easily.

Certainly this is true in the SF Bay Area. San Franciscans know plenty about reality as does anyone in Berkeley who walks more than 2 blocks west or south of campus. You can find pockets around the Bay Area that are pretty damn close to dreamland, I could pick Piedmont in the East Bay, Ross in Marin and Saratoga in the South Bay and Pacific Heights in SF. But most places in the Bay Area things tend to change fairly drastically when you hit the Flats.

Places like Berkeley and Oakland have some really high end housing in the Hills but that doesn't mean you can wonder freely downtown at night. Dreaming away on Shattuck Ave or E 14th Street is a pretty good way to get hurt.

[Emma Anne]

Hemp seat covers?

[s9]

"You could then blog about it..."

...from the iPhone.

[wood turtle]

I do not feel that any further enlightenment can be obtained, unless possibly you do not have cold and warm drink cup holders and the roads and bridges are not perfect.

[Ken Muldrew]

I can't decide whether this is conspicuous consumption or conspicuous conservation; at least I've got the adjective nailed.

[Ian Whitchurch]

Absolutely.

You could be doing it in a Tesla Roadster.

www.teslamotors.com

Because IC is soooo 20th century.

[andres]

Praedor Atrebates:

"Does it mean anything that virtually everyone in any position of power and influence in the Bush II (and Bush I) admins was a Harvard, Princeton, or Yale grad? I believe we need to start seeing people from Colorado State University, University of Utah, Kansas University, Purdue, etc, in these positions so we can determine if the total fuckitude that has been wrought by the previous alums in government is, in fact, a factor of whether or not they acquired degrees from an Ivy League skoo."

The problem is that the Ivy League schools seem to be lax in the way that they turn out their BA's, who could range anywhere from low grade morons to boy wonders like Jeffrey Sachs.

The real test of actual intelligence (though unfortunately not of wisdom) is in the higher degrees (not including MBAs). No self-respecting academic program could have given Bush II (or Bush I for that matter) a Ph.D. in economics; they probably wouldn't even admit him in the first place.

And therein lies the difference between Brad DeLong, self-righteous Ivy League know-it-all who is unfortunately right most of the time, and George W. Bush, self-righteous, Ivy League manipulated know-nothing who has been wrong all the time since at least setting foot in the Oval Office.

[Winston]

The smug emanating from your Prius is choking me as I toil away in my cubicle, looking at a 24" LCD monitor in the not quite post industrial Silicon Valley.

[Maynard Handley]

"Could any higher degree of post-industrial twenty-first century techno-enviro left-coast lifestyle self-righteous enlightenment possibly be attained?
"

There's an awful lot of the 21st century left, Brad.

You're the guy whose always telling us about Edward Bellamy(_Looking Backward_) and Norman Angell (_The Great Illusion_).
Didn't Bellamy even have some quote along the same lines, something about the greatest felicity of the time being that you could listen to concerts on the radio or something?

Ahh, thanks to magic of google (a greatest felicity undreamed of by Bellamy) we have you stating on Sept 10, 2002:
Bellamy's protagonist then says that: "if we [in the nineteenth century] could have devised an arrangement for providing everybody with music in their homes, perfect in quality, unlimited in quantity, suited to every mood, and beginning and ceasing at will, we should have considered the limit of human felicity already attained..."

Exponential growth Brad --- it's not just for accountants anymore!

[supersaurus]

"Could any higher degree of post-industrial twenty-first century techno-enviro left-coast lifestyle self-righteous enlightenment possibly be attained?"

yes.

[Lukeness]

Doesn't compare with Richard Briers and Felicity Kendall in BBC's "The Good Life" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/articles/g/goodlifethe_7772855.shtml).
Also known as "Good Neighbors" when run on PBS in the US. (of course, this does not qualify as post-industrial twenty-first century... nor techno-enviro. But it is certainly self-righteous enlightenment!

[gordon]

Well, you could actually be thinking about something, as well as looking and listening. Think, for example, about why your Prius is not a US-developed product.

[bigTom]

Oh Gordon that wasn't fair. How is he going to enjoy the ride tomorrow? Besides his overcharged battery may not last as long.

[bigTom]

Now to improve on the smug state of Nirvana.

Cruising down the Berkley Hills in his Solar Prius, satisfied that that the energy being absorbed by his battery, from the twin sources of regenerative braking, and the photovoltaic roof, will provide him enough energy to get back home that afternoon without burning any fuel. And knowing that his homes solar panels are generating enough excess energy, that PG&E will once again have to send him a check instead of a bill.

Even better his car radio, is telling him that a large glacier in Greenland has slipped into the ocean, and the sudden 2foot sea level rise is wrecking all kinds of havoc around the world. Oh for the joy of telling his shocked conversative colleges "I told you so"!

[idlemind]

Sorry -- around the Bay Area, Priuses are as common as VW bugs were in the 1970's, and present their owners with the same problem of finding their cars in parking lots full of look-alikes.

[Aniruddha G. Kulkarni]

"smug state of Nirvana"?

Isn't Nirvana suppsoed to be little above all this?

[Gerhard.Fritz]

and, a propos bicycles etc., do you have any kind of public transport in the Bay area? If yes, how about using ist? It should be even more sustainable than a Prius. So much for enlightenment... And, of course Idlemind is dead right: Even relatively less-polluting cars are a problem in urban areas; the problem is "space", not "air" - since they always, even when they are not in use, which is about 22 hours a day, use up public space. Which, as we all know, is a scarse good in urban areas and should not be wasted. We should put a price tag on that as well. So even economically speaking - and not only ecologically - cars are a far from optimal mode of transport.

Your's truly, as you might suspect, is working for the Public Transport Authority of my city.