Lewis Mumford - A Social Visionary

Lewis Mumford

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Lewis Mumford
• urban planning
• ku
• university of kansas

[brejorato]

I really wanted to like this, but I cannot hear nor understand the narration. Please remove the music and re-submit with better (sound) quality, and slower speech for the narration.

[saggenbendavis]

@brejorato Yeah, sorry about that. This was for a school assignment which was basically "do all the necessary research and learn how to use these audio/video editing programs in 2 weeks"

Out of my group of 3, they insisted I do the narration :P (not my forte).

[robbinserized]

The background music is annoying



[saggenbendavis]

@robbinserized

Why do you hate SimCity!? ;)

[PatrickWJ]

This music makes me want to place greenbelts throughout the city and increase transportation connectivity to my sims

[JackKangaroo1]

Lewis Mumford was a social visionary and one of the greatest minds this country ever produced. Sadly few people have ever heard of him, although they've all heard of Madonna and PeeWee Herman. In 1967 Mumford's two volume work entitled "Myth of the Machine: The Pentagon of Power" was published. In it he predicted, among other things, how computers would take over our lives and how American society would continue to disintegrate into an obsession with trivial materialism and mindlessness.

[JackKangaroo1]

@FireweedFarm Yes, Mumford was actually rather critical and dismissive of most attempts at utopias, viewing them as misguided attempts at social engineering. What he offered as a substitute was a more realistic and harmonious synthesis of priorities that would stress an integration with our natural environment, a rejection of blatant and unbridled materialism, and a focus on quality of life rather than quantity of consumption. In other words, he was at odds with our dominant culture.

[JackKangaroo1]

@jckchrstphr Nothing against little Pee-Wee, he's a funny comedian and I laughed my ass off when he played the role of the spoiled nephew on "Murphy Brown" a few years after his infamous masturbation bust. But I think it is tragic that his jerking off in a movie theater gained him more media coverage than Lewis Mumford achieved in his entire lifetime.

[jckchrstphr]

@JackKangaroo1 I agree with you. But I find it hilarious that used "Peewee Herman" an example to illustrate what's wrong with society.

Paul Reubens is from my hometown, BTW.

[FireweedFarm]

Thanks for this. Mumford should not be called idealistic, as idealism (etherealization) AND materialization both loomed large. See Art and Technics and his philosophy of history (CofLp.100, PofPp.421). He was not utopian, as he stated in a late collection ("Findings and Keepings" or "My Works and Days?") but rather emphasized "the fallacy of systems" (CofLp.175) See especially "Utopia, the City and the Machine," (IandFp.241, online). Cf. online "The Culture of Corn Farming: Two Paradigms."

[JackKangaroo1]

@LuizMartins Yes, but unfortunately they are doing exactly that while we continue on our merry way as the world's premier example of energy and resource hogs. Some day in the not too distant future I predict that the chickens will come home to roost.