Many writers have pondered the human fascination with post-apocalyptic dramas. The first stories ever told involved plagues, rivers of blood, hell fire, the Earth splitting open and winged creatures reigning death down from Donald Trump‘s smiling face in the sky. Today’s pop culture landscape is chock full of killer zombies, killer robots, and killer mystery planets.
Pre-history end time narratives arose from a fear of death and a need to explain cataclysmic natural disasters. Today, our fascination with a stateless world comes, I’d like to think, from a desire to return to a pre-industrial society. This may not be an entirely conscious desire, but it’s still there.
Specifically, deep down we long for the face-to-face personal connections we’ve lost in a world where common space is dominated by distracting advertisements, personal tech devices, and millions upon millions of automobiles.
The U.S. never built the grand public plazas that Europe did. For the most part, our streets served as communal meeting places humans needed for hundreds of years. Then, we threw that all away out of a perverted demand for convenience and modernization that backfired horrifically. The evidence of what we lost is well documented, you can still examine American street life before the automobile.
On rare occasion we’ll open our streets back up to people, but only for a few hours at a time. Even rarer, if we’re lucky, Mother Nature will do the job even better, shutting down all the cars, and giving us a fantastic taste of what our ancestors took for granted: streets open to us, not machines.
During this weekend’s Snowmaggedon the East Coast was buried under some 25 inches of pure white powder. Twitter users in New Jersey, Washington DC, Maryland, and New York and all points in between documented masses of people joyously exploring their own streets like never before. It’s a stark reminder of what we could enjoy every day if we were willing to make a radical leap towards bikes and mass transit, and abolished subsidies for driving and parking.
Take a gander at the Tweets embedded below, and cross your fingers that on some Day After Tomorrow the snowmaggedon fun comes your way.
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NYC feels a bit magical as the Mayor bans driving till 7 am due to #blizzard2016 pic.twitter.com/JPuiTxnmTn HT @cbcsteve
— jennifer keesmaat (@jen_keesmaat) January 24, 2016
They’re not getting out anytime soon! #blizzard2016 #bedminster #OutsideMyWindowNJ #snowmaggedon2016 #travelblogger pic.twitter.com/XspAilYmYH — JLC (@JCherry1076) January 24, 2016
Stepping out for coffee. Still plenty of people out and about. #UWS #NYCBlizzard #BlizzardOf2016 #snowmaggedon2016 pic.twitter.com/YkIBiaBtZE
— R. Schmunk (@DataVizier) January 24, 2016
#snowmaggedon2016 #Snowzilla #SnowpocalypseUpdate #blizzard2016 #jonasblizzard #nyc #NewYorkblizzard #NewYorkCity pic.twitter.com/xiCDpORUo1 — Dominick P. Martinez (@soydeburque) January 24, 2016
Enough snow banked for sledding off cars! #snowmaggedon2016 #nyc pic.twitter.com/V3zHw6t4ls
— Aparnaa (@aparnaa_s) January 24, 2016
We have check points in Manhattan, too. Get off the road. It’s for everyone’s safety. #blizzard2016 pic.twitter.com/o8EKME2vMn — NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) January 23, 2016
We are enjoying this car-free city pic.twitter.com/YWnWxV278Z
— John Merrow (@John_Merrow) January 23, 2016
7-year-old in car-free, mid-apocalypse Brooklyn: “it’s very different during the summer.” pic.twitter.com/5IxENrSreY — Nicholas Thompson (@nxthompson) January 23, 2016
I could get used to living on a pedestrian street. #snowmaggedon2016 #Snowzilla pic.twitter.com/wHwHnlhpFl — Philip Crowther (@PhilipinDC) January 24, 2016
Street racers. #nashvillesnow #snowmaggedon2016 @ruthl3sss_ @lizzieking02 @elainetking pic.twitter.com/R0fwfe6GIW
— Shirley Ann (@ShirleyAnn78) January 24, 2016
Wait, is that Frozen soundtrack coming from the police cruiser? Yes, yes it is. pic.twitter.com/522pQUbziX — Aaron C. Davis (@byaaroncdavis) January 23, 2016
The empty, snowy streets of NYC. A blank canvas. #Jonas #jonasblizzard #jonas2016 #blizzard2016 #snowmaggedon2016 pic.twitter.com/3FAL1OZ9Wg
— NBTV Studios (@NBTV) January 24, 2016
#snowmaggedon2016 #jonasblizzard #TimesSquare pic.twitter.com/42wQOs1HgT — Sarah B. Hartshorne (@sarahhartshorne) January 24, 2016
Times Square is like a big block party #snowmaggedon2016 #jonasblizzard #blizzard2016 #TimesSquare #nbc pic.twitter.com/3dpWwKb32j — kelly betts (@TheotherKellyB) January 24, 2016
There is a major #SnowballFight in #TimesSquare right now!! Reflections of the Blizzard of 09 #snowmaggedon2016 pic.twitter.com/oh3CKCuI1M — Jason C. Cleanthes (@EffenDunn) January 24, 2016
Nice day for a bike ride #Snowzilla #blizzard2016 #stormjonas #snowmaggedon2016 pic.twitter.com/LUqRHfx2xp — Brasilmagic (@Brasilmagic) January 24, 2016
Why oh why can’t I have neighbors like this? #snowmaggedon2016 ? pic.twitter.com/RrAZwmJPk9 — DuneMyThing™ (@Kris_Sacrebleu) January 23, 2016
You can shut down cars, mass transit, restaurants. You can’t shut down liquor stores. #NYC #blizzard2016 pic.twitter.com/Y1VoZY7OZI — Lou (@dubois) January 24, 2016
@Lianaxbanana “@_RickyMinaj: Bundle up out there, kids #jonasblizzard #blizzard2016 #snowmaggedon2016 #Snowzilla pic.twitter.com/EKTUSVgiCw” — patricia (@pppatticake) January 24, 2016
#snopenstreets #blizzard2016 pic.twitter.com/1uHnT5yAF9 — marni brewster (@marnibrewster) January 24, 2016
Good night New York. This is the most beautiful I have ever seen you. pic.twitter.com/vyBxpUA2oY — Andy Dunn (@dunn) January 24, 2016
The scene in Brooklyn today, after all the streets were closed. #snowmaggedon2016 pic.twitter.com/LCVVgTWkeF — Holly Bemiss (@BeMissH) January 24, 2016
See you in the streets.
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