Thursday, April 28, 2011

Overhead Wires Are Worse Than Hitler

Yglesias:


It would be interesting to see if people actually preferred a pastoral view free of the accoutrements of electrification but I doubt anyone actually prefers that. Instead, the customary interjections of technology into the suburban landscape are normalized while any deviation from the postwar pattern is anathematized. Had people 100 years ago had this attitude, I suppose nobody would have telephone service or electricity at all.

I was fascinated when I came across people, mostly West Coast transplants on the East Coast, who hated overhead wires intensely. Some people raised in places where they're all buried find them bizarre and hideous.

Though it's hard to comprehend (at link) how adding some solar panels to an existing pole/wire network would be so disturbing.