The Suburbs

I've never really liked the suburbs. This feeling has only gotten worse since I started working out there. I went to the shiny new Starbucks after work today and I realized something about the place. All of the Starbucks here in the city are very alive, full of interesting people pursuing there passions and talking. I've met some damn fine folks at Starbucks (including my roommate!) either working at or hanging out at Starbucks. The suburban ones feel so dead. Every customer hunched into their shells, seeking the solace of a latte held alone. It's like wandering into a hermitage unannounced, blaring your boombox at top volume. Every glance, measured. Every greeting, brief. I often wonder at the chicken and the egg nature of this crowded suburban solitude. Is it that the suburbs attract people who want to be left alone, or does it change the people there into these shades? It's an overcrowded ghost town and it makes me feel so gray so alone. I can generally avoid leaving the city all weekend. I make plans to go outside like a military commander. I have a strategic overview of what needs doing in the wastelands, a tactical map of my terrain and above all, my armor. What happened out there? Was it a slow and painful death? Was this nightmare soulscape once teeming with life and hope, to be drained as a swamp is for another shopping center?
I like to look back at the facts about suburban development to give me some perspective. The modern American suburb is a direct result of several key corporations involved with automobiles and fuel production selling these old farm lands as an escape from city strife and overcrowding. It's so depressing. So much of our social order and landscape has been determined for us by people with only profit in mind. And short term profit at that. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for profit being made. But at what cost to our national identity? I'd like to think that at one time our people were innovative workers, citizen soldiers and thinkers unafraid to speak their minds. Ah, it is but an illusion I learned as a child. The more I look and learn, the more this becomes apparent. I swallowed that red pill lock stock and barrel all the way through middle school and I still have a hard time shaking the idea that this is a great nation. It sounds so damn good on paper too. A secular, pluralistic representative democracy ruled by law. What we see is certainly not what we get. I see parts of it here in the city, people helping each other, being tolerant of others beliefs and participating in the governance of our home.
It gives me joy and hope that my childish dreams may yet see reality in one form or another. But every time I get into the wastes it fades from my vision and the harsh tungsten lights conceals all else. The scurrying, honking noisy mess full of hyper-caffeinated shoppers tries to herd me in. I can understand how people out there get eaten by this crap. Where did it all start? Who was the first person to start this vicious game of eat and be eaten? I do not know the answers, but the questions are getting clearer and that is all I can ask.