Community Conversations

The Homogenization of Homer

A position paper by Deland S. Anderson based on a Community Conversation held at the Pratt Museum on 18 April 2003.

Fifteen or so people gathered at the Pratt Museum on a beautiful April evening to discuss the theme of monoculture. The facilitator, Deland Anderson, introduced the theme by surveying a list of different aspects of the spread of monoculture and homogenization.

First in the list was the concept of brand name. The example of brand name foods was advanced to point out how diet is changed on a mass scale through promotion, distribution, and consumption of certain foods. This was dubbed the “Wonder Bread, Campbell’s Soup, Gala Apple Phenomenon.” It leads to more and more people eating the same thing the whole world over. In addition ever more acreage is put under plow to produce that one type of food, resulting in the homogenization of bioregions.

Next to be considered was the notion of chain stores. Chain franchises extend retail strips by an unfolding panoply of regional, national, and international products. McDonalds is the most conspicuous example throughout the world, but it doesn’t end there. McDonalds ushers in Burger King, A&W, Wendy’s, Arby’s, Subway, Kentucky Fried, etc. And of course chains are not limited to fast food outlets. Indeed during the past generation, chains have spread beyond department and catalogue stores like Sears and JC Penney and gas stations such as Texaco and Shell to theaters, bookstores, coffee shops, restaurants, retail outlets, mega stores, motels, etc.

Third in this list was the loss of biodiversity. In Kachemak Bay the present generation of settlers and natives bear witness to a dramatic depletion in the variety of types of creatures that dwell here, and this within their own lifetimes. Whether in the sea, on the land, or in the air, fewer and fewer different kinds of denizens are apparent, while more and more of certain kinds multiply. Just a few examples of extremely successful invasive species include dandelions, Kentucky blue grass, feral cats, pike, oysters, crows, and people. The overall trend is a shift from a richly diverse collection of biological populations in balance to a limited array of “favored” species in competition. The analogy may be drawn between feedlots and fish farms as ways to monopolize the environment in favor of certain desirable organisms.

Standardized education was next on the list. Through the technology of standardized testing and the deployment of benchmark batteries, students are increasingly led away from locally based curricula to nationwide trends in the education industry. Factors such as The No Child Left Behind Act leverage school curricula in the direction of the lowest common denominator for nationwide education standards. Distance education technologies contribute to the same homogenization of learning, but in different ways. When satellite, video, or web-based instruction replaces in-class teaching, it is done according to the mantra “do more with less”, which is tantamount to saying one size fits all. More and more the same favorite web sites are visited, oftener and oftener the same video is played for students. People living in this area remember the Bureau of Indian
Affairs schools. Some attended them. Recent initiatives to pass English Only legislation in the state bring to mind frightening memories of being ridiculed or beaten for conversing in one’s native tongue. The monopolization of language by English in education undercuts literacy by eliminating bi-lingual students. Furthermore, in the case of indigenous language groups, it severs the tie between the people and their lands, thus erasing vast stores of accumulated traditional information, lore and wisdom.

The monopolization of media and the use of propaganda were added to the list of homogenizing elements. In this community, mega media such as CNN and the Discovery Channel are more and more prevalent, as witness the proliferation of cable guys and the profundity of satellite dishes. Increasingly nationally aired shows are replacing locally developed and hosted programs on our public radio station, KBBI. The per capita use of internet is reportedly higher in Seldovia than anywhere else in Alaska, and Alaska is said to out distance all other states in this category—in short, the sleepy fishing village of Seldovia is the most wired community in the U.S. One local newspaper has begun to carry Associated Press stories as a regular feature of the news, further undercutting local development of journalism. Not too long ago Homer was a place where if two people dreamt the same thing one night, it was news. Gone is the barrel stove in the store around which people once formed local opinions on international politics. News is becoming increasingly harder to get at the post office, as neighbors and townspeople rush to match the pace of increased auto traffic. Some places still remain for sharing news locally, but they are enclaves of sorts—pubs and coffee klatches—that, because they are more exclusive than a general store or post office, are more given to rumor and muckraking than newsgathering. So, our choices for gleaning information on local, national, and international events are being quickly whittled down to small town gossip and nationwide propaganda. In either case, this leads to lockstep, monolithic thinking rather than to reflection and independent reasoning.

Another factor in homogenization was added to the list. It fell under the heading of the removal of cultural alternatives. Strategies often employed to achieve this aim of monolithic cultures were noted: acculturation, assimilation, and ethnic cleansing. Monocultures, by definition, cannot tolerate cultures based on a different set of choices. For example, in this region the capitalist-driven fish canneries could not survive in a climate of barter or subsistence. In order to acquire a cheap and reliable labor pool, the cannery companies needed to undermine the subsistence economy of local Denaina and Sugpiaq peoples and replace it with a cash economy, and especially one in which the new laborers were often destitute as compared to their previous existence. The strategy of creating a local, desperate labor force for industry was pursued systematically with the help of the federal and later the state government. Language, religion, family, and economy in the native cultures were rooted out through enforced education, proselytizing, the forced removal of children from their homes, and the passing of laws to prohibit subsistence harvest. Once this work of acculturation was completed, the process of assimilation was underway, at least among those who survived the initial disruption. The values of the monolithic culture of America were instilled in the native populations with such mottoes as “You got to be white to be bright!” and “We don’t serve colored in here.” In addition these peoples were placed on rations of sugar, flour, tobacco, tea, and alcohol to assure that they became assimilated into the new economy. And again, those who survived did. Rifles replaced harpoons and rubber boots took over for mukluks. Big screen TVs and Nike sweatshirts weren’t far behind. Sometimes even in the course of a single generation a people in this area have gone from gathering their own fuel (wood and seal oil) to spending the majority of their cash income on one sort of petroleum product or another, whether it be boat gas, four wheeler gas, snow machine gas, aviation gas, heating oil, or jet fuel.

The next to the last item in this list was the concept of the grid. It was noted that the grid was a pervasive technology in the emerging monoculture of the area. Native peoples since time immemorial lived “off the grid” until recently in Kachemak Bay. White settlers during the homesteading days of the 1930s, 40s and 50s chose to carve out a living in a place without the modern conveniences of power, water, sewer, telephone, roads, etc. Hippies and back-to-the-landers began arriving in the 70s and continue to do so today. They chose a community to live where the grid was by then in place, but they purposefully settled beyond its reach. These people are fewer and fewer today, many having given up on the project, but those remaining often still live without power, running water, toilets, telephones, or driveways. However, they are being swallowed in new grid development at a rapid pace. With the recent addition of international airfreight services, fax machines, cell phones, and Internet services to our local grid, many newcomers find they can pursue the same business here that they did in San Francisco or Philadelphia or Phoenix. The grid is impacting this area in another, and even more visible sense. Before the road came to Homer, transportation was a challenge. Beaches served as roads to and from town, and trails accommodated mostly horse and wagon traffic. A high ratio of pedestrians still frequent the byways in and around this community, but with straighter, flatter roads, better bridges, and high-speed traffic, walking as a means of transport is rapidly disappearing. Designer walking and bike paths now replace trails, marking the shift of walking from a subsistence activity to recreation. And it is not just the high speed and density of automobile traffic with its noise, stench and danger that makes walking less desirable today. It is also the monumental boredom of right angles, gradual inclines, and flat streets. Once every trail or road in this community followed the contours of the topography as laid down by the forces of geology. Today one path after another is bulldozed under as flat, level building sites erase creeks, bogs, gullies, groves, and thickets. But with the removal of the landscape, the act of walking for transport becomes relatively loathsome, and so pedestrians are categorized socially as pitiable, rather than enlightened or free. They become suspect citizens, drawing the attention of police and the disdain of motorists. When a town government chooses in favor of an industrial style grid as its model for town planning, it takes a huge step in the direction of making one place just like any other place. When that same government has developed a vision of protecting the integrity and local flavor of this community, as has the City of Homer, even as it unthinkingly spreads its grid, it is in obvious contradiction with itself.
A community so hamstrung on the government level is susceptible to one of the most virulent forms of homogenization: fads. Young girls quest after the perfect “Barbie Body” while young boys trick themselves out in gangster-rapper-hip-hop togs. So, spaghetti-strap dresses are required equipment at the high school prom, and this when April weather here often brings sub-freezing temperatures and bitter northwest winds. The pants that the boys sport are so hugely baggy and ride so low that they couldn’t sidestep a mother moose to save their lives. A Japanese foreign exchange student who happened to attend this conversation underscored the correlation of high-density, urban grid monoculture and susceptibility to fads when he remarked that in Japan what we call fad they call “boom.”

After finishing this rather long, though not exhaustive list, the group began to percolate with questions and remarks. One participant asked the facilitator if he saw any “positive” aspects of monoculture. The most obvious “positive” side to any monoculture is its durability, he noted. Monocultures are inherently conservative—they strive to perpetuate themselves. This is clear in the cases of the world’s tribal cultures, which are without exception monocultures, though they are locally based monocultures. And this is an important distinction. Locally based monocultures are unique in comparison to other such cultures or in contrast to mass monocultures. In Homer, for example, in the 1980s and 90s the culture was distinguished from other cultures by skiffs, Carharts, Extra Tuffs, Duct tape, and red Subarus. As the values and commodities of the mass monoculture of America spread in this community, fewer and fewer of these signature items are apparent. With regard to mass monoculture, it was acknowledged, homogeneity enables great public works projects. The Egyptian Pyramids, the Great Wall of China, the cathedrals of Europe, the Empire State Building, and the moon shot were only possible because they had the momentum of a mass monoculture behind them. The Human Genome Diversity Project, which has just completed the mapping of the human genetic code, was only possible through a mass culture with linguistic homogeneity and ubiquitous computing technology. By the same token, it was remarked, one has to qualify the value, “positive”, as it is applied to the concept of mass culture. Aside from the great monumental or medical advances made by mass monocultures have been shocking blunders or diabolical, totalizing catastrophes such as the atom bombing of Japan and the Holocaust. Reference to the recent book, The Firecracker Boys, by Daniel O’Neil of Fairbanks underscored this point. Scientists from the United States Atomic Energy Commission and affiliated Livermore Labs were narrowly diverted from detonating 2.4 megatons of hydrogen bombs (160 times the strength of the Hiroshima blast) at Cape Thompson near Point Hope, Alaska. The Alaskan populace was sold on the notion that the massive explosions would stimulate the sluggish economy by creating a harbor for port facilities. In general, it was noted, the apparent advantages of a mass monoculture are mobility, convenience, and universality.

Those present at this conversation were mostly people who had been involved in a protest the preceding Sunday. Citizens spontaneously came out with signs and much passion to prevent the clear-cutting of a dearly beloved community gathering spot in the center of Homer. The site for KBBI’s Concert on the Lawn for many years and an informal camping spot for much longer, this thirteen-acre parcel has been slated for development. Fred Meyer Store has recently negotiated with Cook Inlet Regions, Inc., the owner of the property, for purchase of the lot to build a mega store. The move is controversial for a number of reasons: local merchants fear their small “mom and pop” stores will be put out of business by the huge retailer; the lot in question was the long-proposed site for the Homer Town Square Project; this is the last remaining stand of trees within the center of a town that until the last five years had been huddled in the midst of a mature spruce forest; Fred Meyer’s plans for a huge box store are contrary to the city government’s comprehensive plan in support of locally owned, niche businesses and an open space town square.

Needless to say, the small group at the Community Conversation was a gathering of “friends” or at least like-minded individuals. All present lamented the seemingly unstoppable onslaught of homogenizing factors, and this despite the concerted efforts of those present and many others who were otherwise occupied at the time of the discussion. This conversation continues to ripple through the community with numerous meetings, press articles, and letters to the editor expressing both sides of the controversy. No matter which side one is on, it seems, one sees criminals or morally reprehensible persons on the other side. Attention was brought to numerous other development projects devoted to the spread of mass monoculture. Huge subdivisions were prominent in this listing and individuals and their roles were examined and criticized. People who had formerly been viewed by this group as brothers in arms were now put on the list of enemies. The facilitator counseled reflection, self-examination, and mutual understanding. One example may be presented to make this point. One of the participants in the conversation, Mike O’Meara, is a political cartoonist for the Homer News as well as a longtime employee of the Pratt Museum. His most recent satire involved a sketch showing smaller fish being devoured by larger and larger fish. The smallest were labeled with the names of small businesses that had succumbed to larger retailers in the area. The onetime local grocery store, Proctor’s, was being ingested by the locally owned but much larger grocery store, Kachemak Wholesale Foods. It was in turn being swallowed down by Carrs, a statewide supermarket chain. Carrs was food for the national chain, Safeway. Finally Safeway was about to be devoured by a humongous Fred Meyer Store. An equally biting lampoon might have been limned that showed the China Poot Bay Conservation Society being swallowed whole by the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies. The Homer Historical Society could have been shown to be food for the current Pratt Museum. And both might be shown as clearly about to be gulped down by a new US Fish and Wildlife visitor center, scheduled to open to the public in October 2003. Perhaps because the new Oceans and Islands Visitor Center, as it has been named, appears to be on the same side of the line as the aforementioned conservation groups, it has not drawn the same attacks as has Fred Meyer. But the result may be essentially the same. The new facility, built on the so-called bypass will congest traffic, divert visitors from the other organizations, create a parking lot directly on top of an existing nature trail, and impose its post-modern, ultra urban design over a bucolic slough and at the cost of yet more of our dwindling spruce forest and much needed open space.