My
Front-Porch Theory of America
By Otto Reimer
Having
the great fortune of growing up in place that was free and independent
of the nothing we called the creeping American culture in Texas,
I can tell you stories about people in my area that would make Faulkner
blush and Roy Rogers laugh and do rope tricks. But the key to any
good yarn is a community to base one upon, and I’m sorry I
would rather look at Dick Cheney Glamour Shots where he wears a
fluffy all be it fun red boa than listen to any more tales of suburban
disturbance. These people are under the spell of suppression through
opulence, whereas the quality of life is so up to such a level the
populace is in fear of change in fear of losing their mall food
courts which daily have banquets the Romans would have called decadent.
But the sacrifice was a common bond with their neighbors; just because
a city has a name, it is not a town until there are a people.
The alpha point for this culture was rather simple and, at the time,
viewed as a keen idea. In the swell years of America, the post-war
family explosion was ignited a need for place for these fine Americans
a home. They would also have to fast produced to accommodate the
both the baby boom, and longer living older generation.
At this time it would be convenient time to discuss basic home building.
Up until this era, all homes had a dominating front to the street,
with a front porch as the primary portal into the home (See Figure
1). They also had nice front lawns with actually used lawn furniture
and always with a Norman Rockwell shady tree. The front porch was
a focal point of social interaction that can still be seen on stoop
fronts of Brooklyn.
Now when the suburbs started to spread like across the land like
some kind of biblical plague, they did something very interesting
to the house. This also coincided with mass personal auto use. Instead
of a brilliantly planned set of plans to build an automated train-based
transport system, we decided to ride around alone with only the
radio to talk to. And the houses needed a place for the autos, so
the front porch was scrapped in favor a garage, but when the people
complained about the lack of porches, they gave them a back patio.
This was also an interesting time for mass communications. Without
a front porch to act as the center of family activity, the epicenter
was then placed on the television. Isolated in their backyards,
the basic social fabric began to fray, and two major fabrics were
broken and went under media control. No longer were their local
farm teams, and neighborhood pick games went the way of watching
the local big city team on television. Since women were no longer
on the porch passing tales, the local grapevine was supplanted by
Soap Operas. If you look at the rise in popularity of network daytime
dramas and the rise of major sports franchises in correlation to
the removal of front porches one can see a direct relation.
Once you take these to vital strings out of the blanket of a town,
it is only obvious that America would evolve into the detached isolated
world it has become. Once media took these two over and TV had become
must see, other aspects of our culture feel like dominos. Forget
love thy neighbor; we don’t even know thy neighbor any more.
But wait, there’s more!
Recently, Phase 2 has started to follow in the prototype’s
footsteps. Now the structure is complete. Due to land value and
space maxination, the houses have been elongated from the garage
to form a basic railroad style, with no porch at all (See Figure
3). In the last fifty years we have managed to rotate the basic
American home 90 degrees, and destroy our culture in the process.
That would only level the dreaded Phase 3. Instead of simple fences,
20-foot security walls block the view of all your neighbors and
a 30 foot electrified fence obscures the front to the street (See
Figure 4). You are finally secured. TV has evolved into a virtual
reality SIMS type environment where the only social reaction occurs
on Internet 2. Since you telecommute and food is delivered by Wal-Mart
online, there is no reason to ever leave. Your whole life is now
bought out of a virtual catalog. So ends the land of the brave,
or does it?
So check this out, and remember how simple we all are. I was searching
online about solar planes for a home power source, and found a freaking
kids toy to where you can build such a thing. It even has an add-on
for an electric car? Are you trying to tell me kids can do it, but
adults can’t? A child can build a self-efficient home, while
we still pay the electric company to do it for us. Gotta hand it
to media control and home rotation.
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