I grew up in the suburbs of North County San Diego. Most of my immediate surroundings consisted of street after street lined with a repeating sequence of 5 alternating house models. These developments, one after the next, were each equipped with their own pools, home owners associations, neighborhood watches, and were all within a minute’s drive to the four supermarkets or three prestigious public schools, themselves only a mile or two apart. Chain restaurants and stores dominated our shopping centers, and every piece of free land was turned into the new “forum,” “plaza,” or “village square.”
The luxury of space not available within a metropolitan area, juxtaposed against the constraint of money based on the value of Southern California land, created simply designed and easily replicated communities of these kind. Small backyards, slim side walkways, and basic floor-plans were strategic in the development of the homes to maximize the profitability of the space and efficiency of building. It seemed, growing up, as if each year the developments multiplied in their expansion, however, the individual houses within became smushed closer and closer together, “on top of one another” as my dad would say.
I always thought our creation of suburbia was a weird way to organize ourselves. these communities command order, functionality, and convenience in order to preserve stability and cohesion. Despite these qualities we supposedly desire, human nature I don’t think is naturally so conforming. We promote differences, enjoy uniqueness, and celebrate individuality. It is almost high school in the sense to pursue ideals opposite as such, to “fit in” by dressing as, acting like, and choosing to associate with people based off of similarities you have in common.
Since high school, I have come to understand that the pressure to “fit in” stems from insecurities about our differences, often enforced by the media or television programs. The haves and the have nots are often divided by goods not attainable by all. Consumerism, purchasing superficial materials to build status or credibility, is fueled by the need to fill a void created by some force other than human nature.
That force in our modern society is capitalism. In funding television and media networks, the capitalist system gains access to us. Instead of catering to our needs and wants, this system creates them for us. Through advertising in commercials, product placement, and celebrity endorsements, we are convinced that the American Dream requires a whole lot of crap. This desire turned dependency on consuming an ever-increasing amount of stuff makes the system profitable, however doesn’t really fulfill its promise of happiness and prosperity for its buyers.
Just as we bought the same T-shirt as the popular “Samantha” in our class, and went out to purchase a Juicy Couture tracksuit to copy Paris Hilton’s latest look, the capitalist system has driven us to model our communities in order to fit into the system’s criteria. Do we naturally desire the monotony and conformity of suburbia, or does the system convince us this is the way to achieve safety, comfortability, and stability?
Organizing a community so that each house, each development, and each town center all resemble each other is not initially intended to make us feel safe and equal, it is done so because it is the most economically efficient. The productivity of letting individuals choose and design their own patterns of settlement is not comparable to the maximum efficiency gained with standardized, easily replicated models of floor-plans or chain restaurant businesses.
The development industry was able to introduce consumerism on a community wide scale. Similar to the planted idea that we need what someone else has to fill some void, capitalism convinces us that in purchasing a house in a residential neighborhood, our choosing similarity and conformity is safer, and better. The difference between consumerism and suburbia is that the system has kept its promises.
The suburbs are cleaner, have better schools, and are generally safer from crime and corruption. However, the ideals they promote harbor more damage than good. The insecurity of difference the system creates and exploits makes us fear diversity. It is understandable that one might see foreign ideas, change, immigrants and modernity as a threat to the order that upholds the integrity of our “safe” communities, based on what we have been convinced of. However, I still have trouble believing that this safety naturally stems from similarity, that it isn’t just a manufactured connection.
