"Arizona" comes from the Spanish "áridazona", which means "dry and barren land". Most of the southern part of this state is desert, Gobi, and desert, but it is not a desert like the Sahara Desert, but is often called a "sparse grass desert", with sparse cacti and seasonal grasses; the northern part is the Colorado Plateau and Alpine region. Much of the state was not "livable" and was chronically sparsely populated even after the founding of the United States. It is the last state established in the continental United States, that is, the last developed state in the continental United States.
Curiously, Arizona's population has grown rapidly over the past 100 years, with a growth rate of more than 10 percent far exceeding that of other states. More interestingly, its neighboring states—the states that border Mexico, such as California and Texas, have also experienced rapid population growth; The mainstay of migration in the past decade is Latin American immigrants, mainly Spanish-speaking Mexicans, as well as Central and South Americans. Spanish is almost on the verge of becoming a second language in those states. So much so that Huntington, a well-known contemporary American political philosopher and a professor at Harvard University, was actually worried about this. In his influential book Who We Are, he was severely critical of the influx of Latin American immigrants and was deeply worried. This would change the character of the United States, pose a major threat to the Anglo-Protestant American cultural core, change the American nationality that has been formed, and even divide the United States.
Arizona has the most stringent laws against illegal immigration in the United States, and it is not a high-quality space for Latin American immigrants to realize the "American Dream". Although it also has a long border with Mexico, its rapidly increasing population is also mainly "immigrants". However, most of them are white people from the central part of the United States, and even the Anglo-Saxon ethnic group in the east and north. They have been "migrant" American citizens for several generations.
Is this the "frontier spirit" that constructs the United States at work in the dark? Is this the last echo of the "Westward Movement" that built the United States? In the collective unconscious of Americans, the frontier desert is both a beast that civilization should conquer and a refuge in times of spiritual crisis. Arizona, with relatively poor resources and a relatively harsh climate, does not seem to have any attractive features, but it is the "last frontier" of the continental United States! It was not a state until 1912. Indeed, many big plans supported by the American spirit of "opening up the frontier" were planned and implemented in Arizona. For example, the "Sonoran Desert Project" that began in the second half of the last century - the large-scale development and protection of the Sonoran Desert in southern Arizona, and even tried to build a "Eden-like" desert in this desert. Group of large buildings. In fact, Phoenix, the state capital, and Tucson, Arizona's second-largest city, are located in this desert.
As we all know, the United States does not lack "living space". Roaming in the United States by self-driving car will leave a deep impression on people because of its vast territory and sparse population. Except for the old colonial areas in the east and the core areas of a few large cities, do not Compared with Europe, even compared with China, there is no sense of prosperity and excitement, and it is a "giant farm" that is almost desolate. The space suitable for development is abundant enough to be wasted at will. Is it necessary to develop the desert? And the focus and purpose of the plan is "to preserve and develop important natural areas, to provide foundations and services for the protection of cultural and historical resources, to help ensure that our Western way of life, cultural traditions, can continue" - is this the United States People's "consciousness of anxiety"?
More telling is another world-famous big project: "Biosphere Two" - which can be translated as "Second Biosphere". Its basic idea is to build a closed environment sufficient for human survival when humans colonize the moon or Mars. Construction started in the 1990s and has continued to this day. Some people call it the frontier development that matches the human landing on the moon. Such fictional narratives already exist in sci-fi movies, and are familiar to audiences. In reality, it stands solidly in the Arizona desert. Over the past 20 years, significant progress has been made. Scientists have comprehensively observed how all kinds of creatures on earth: people, animals, insects, and plants will survive and be able to live in a completely enclosed building complex. how to survive. This can be called one of the greatest experiments of mankind, and mankind will look up and will gradually prove its importance. The experiment continues, and it already has commercial value: tourist attractions.
In 1893, the famous American historian Turner argued in his essay "The Importance of Frontiers in American History", which is perhaps the most famous in American historical documents: American history is a development of the western frontier. Historically, the "frontier spirit" constituted the national character of the United States. A hundred years later, in Constructing America, a collective of contemporary American scholars published in 1992, the authors still declared: "America's development owes much to the westward-expanding frontier of the Westward Movement. ." Another author even claimed that "Robinson can be regarded as our common ancestor". Thus, even "the relationship between the United States and science always seems to be centered on exploration." The "Spirit of the Frontier" remains a core component of the American ethos, a nation whose future is defined by the frontier. Thus, the inner impulse of young, aggressive Americans drove them westward to Arizona, the last frontier of the continental United States. Perhaps, in international activities, the United States is often regarded as combative by other countries, and it is probably also related to this "frontier spirit".
Notably, two-thirds of Arizona's population congregates in the Phoenix and Tucson metropolitan areas. Phoenix, in terms of resident population, was just a remote frontier town of tens of thousands of people at the beginning of the last century. It became the ninth largest city in the United States in 1990, and surpassed Philadelphia in 2010 to become the fifth largest city in the United States. At the current rate of growth, it is entirely possible that in ten years, Phoenix will surpass Chicago and become the third or fourth largest city in the United States. Since the 20th century, New York and Chicago, the old-fashioned big cities in the east, have seen very slow population growth, while emerging cities such as Los Angeles, Houston, and especially Phoenix have developed rapidly. The big American cities familiar to the Chinese, such as Seattle, Atlanta, San Francisco, Boston, Miami, etc., are actually less than half the size of Phoenix in terms of area and population. Interestingly, the top four major cities in the United States: New York, Los Angeles, and Houston, all face the ocean. Chicago is on the verge of the Great Lakes - the "North American Mediterranean", as the so-called "facing the sea, spring flowers bloom"; only Phoenix, Deep inland, in the desert, the desert, and the famous "stove" in American cities. In July and August, the temperature is above 40°C almost every day. It is said that the degree of dryness and heat, even in large cities around the world, only Riyadh in Saudi Arabia and Baghdad in Iraq can be compared with it.
It was built in the Salt River Valley. According to archaeological excavations, there were human (Indian) activities thousands of years ago; but the Salt River has basically been semi-dry in the past few hundred years. In the last century, the "Roosevelt Dam" solved the problem of water supply, and a modern city was established; later, another reservoir was built, which is located in the city of "Tempe", the municipality of Phoenix, which is called "Tempe Lake" and became Phoenix City. of a landscape. Nearly half of Arizona's population lives in and around this city, though, it's still not a very livable space.
Modern big cities are often directly related to high-rise buildings and even skyscrapers, while Phoenix has very few "high" buildings with more than ten stories; , not to mention residential areas. The impression of "big city - high-rise buildings" should have been constructed by American cities before the 1960s; and now the expansion of American cities, especially the emerging cities in the west, is mainly a horizontal spread and discrete construction; Suburbanization and suburbanization are the mainstream of urban construction. "Many high-rise buildings" is by no means a description of such a large city, in which a building with four or more floors is considered a high-rise. Driving around Phoenix, the first impression is that this is an "expanded" township. When many post-developed and less-developed countries are competing to build taller buildings and larger buildings to show their ambition and prosperity, Americans have lost the idea of using tall buildings to symbolize "desire to compete with God". , trying to challenge God's interest.
Even more interesting is the growth pattern of Phoenix. In general, cities are built with a starting point, a center, and a suburban fringe, but Phoenix has neither a center nor a starting point. A cursory glance, such as a combined version of a large group of farmsteads and small towns. The airport is in the urban area; the bustling business district is on the edge; "Tempe Lake" is similar to the center, but less than two kilometers north is "Papago" - the original desert landscape; and "Papago Park" "The surrounding area is still urban. A closed highway crisscrosses the urban area. Therefore, there must be an import and export of less than two kilometers on the road. Generally speaking, the growth of the city is the expansion of the urban area to the suburbs in all directions, and Phoenix seems to be a counter-attack version of the suburb to the urban area; , is always in progress.
West Coast cities, newly emerging western cities, such as the more representative Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States, are actually roughly the same. It is less than ten skyscrapers, and most of the buildings are below four floors. Tourists in contemporary China often sigh: far less prosperous than China! Los Angeles also has neither a center nor a starting point. They are like a big river, rushing to a low-lying area, pooling, spreading freely, and expanding into a big city.
In this kind of city, there is almost no public transport system, although there are several bus routes and even a light rail tram, but it is only an embellishment. There is no center in this kind of city, and workers come from and go to every point and line. Sophisticated and well-designed lanes, no area is particularly congested. Living in such a city, a family car, like a mobile phone and a computer, is a must-have for almost everyone. Even lamentable, no feet can be, no car is not a big deal. There is a problem with the legs, wheelchairs are available, and a slightly modified sedan is easy to get on and off. The United States is a "paradise for wheelchairs", with facilities built for wheelchairs everywhere. Without a car, shopping and eating are big problems and difficulties are everywhere. The car is a mobile house, in the car, both at "home" and on the road, ready to be pulled out at any time.
The old big cities in the east, such as New York, Chicago, and Boston, conform to the inherent standard impression of modern big cities, with high-rise buildings, densely populated people, and developed public transportation systems. If they can be called "modern" cities, and large cities in the west, they can be called "post-modern" cities, representing the appearance of future cities and leading the new trend of urban construction.
However, the western cities are more likely to be the manifestation of the "frontier spirit", and the eastern cities are old. Compared with American history, it has been "classified" and stereotyped, lacking the vigorous and pioneering impulse, the impulse to be unwilling to be stereotyped, unwilling to stop, and ready to pack and move forward at any time. The famous contemporary historian Fernand Braudel once commented: "(America) as a civilization, it has been a tourist with luggage for a long time...In front of it, there is an infinitely beautiful future, just waiting They are not nomads who migrate with the seasons, but are inspired by ideals, beliefs, and even illusions. "Frontiers" are ahead, everything is uncertain, and they can only move forward.
Looking back on history, the so-called frontier development of the United States refers to thousands of people, each seeking to survive and develop. Spontaneous organization, free movement, clustering and ready to separate at any time, clustering and appropriate dispersion...thus constructing towns and cities. The construction of the United States is that there are agglomerated and mobile agreement groups first, developing westward, and then the national government; first urban construction, and then rural construction.
The essence of the "frontier spirit" is that there will never be a fixed frontier. Moving forward, moving forward, opportunities are calling, and opportunities for equal competition are calling. Motivated by ideals, sometimes by fantasies, to advance into the unknown space. Americans have an irrational, somewhat morbid, deep-seated fear that they dare not stop, for fear of falling behind, thus losing "opportunities", being abandoned by "destiny", and being abandoned by God. According to relevant data records, Americans rarely live in a house for more than five years. It is quick to develop, and it is also quick to abandon. Boorstin, a famous contemporary American historian, stated in his influential book The Americans: From 1852 to 1912 alone, during the Frontier Movement, Americans built and abandoned more than 2,500 towns. A typical example is Jamestown, Virginia, which was the first "permanent" settlement of British immigrants in North America and served as the state's capital. A hundred years later, there are only rows of empty houses left, with the wind and "ghosts" wandering among them. Detroit and Pittsburgh, these important cities in the United States, may already be on the road of abandonment in this century, or at least on the decline.
The "frontier" of the United States means that there is no "frontier", but there is a direction, that is, "going west". Back to the Atlantic Ocean - Europe, facing the Pacific Ocean, westward, westward, is the eternal theme of the United States. For four hundred years, there has been one "turn": the First World War; two "turns": the Second World War and the "Cold War". It is not only now that we are "returning to the Asia-Pacific", but we have been keeping our eyes on the Asia-Pacific.
When there is no more space in front of you, you may also turn to the desert, desert, and then flock to Arizona... Flock to the sky: the moon, Mars, and more distant space, so there is a "challenger" and "Apo" Luo" ... so Biosphere Two was born. The frontier builds America, and it builds the American spirit: pride, belligerence, and aggression. What is more important is the supremacy of the individual, even declaring that "the individual is the foundation of everything". The United States is a group formed by individuals cooperating and contracting, and a country is built by the group. The "priority principle" of developing the west has also caused Americans to fear backwardness, fear of stagnation, and even believe that if they do not move forward, Americanness will disappear.
The frontier spirit, one of the most striking manifestations of the average American citizen, is a love of work. The indicator to measure the economy is social welfare status for Europe, GDP for developing countries; and for the United States, the first is "unemployment rate". Any spike in unemployment will cause the government to panic. This is the source of American power. Further, it is to pursue a "career" that goes beyond "work". Work is 9 to 5, five days a week; "career" is 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Work is what you want to do, and career is what you want to do.
Where is the "frontier spirit" that makes Americans truly powerful?
It is a powerful 60-70-year-old uncle and aunt who drives a pickup truck and works in the wilderness.
Wearing a pair of "flip-flops" barefoot, she travels to a foreign country thousands of miles away; on a transoceanic plane, she frowns, buryes her head in the computer, and works endlessly.
It was a handsome young man who quickly jumped up and down in the high temperature of fifty degrees Celsius on the "express" truck that was not allowed to use air conditioning.
It's Route 66, Joad from Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath," not Route 66, Dean Moriarty from Cadiac's "On the Road; it's Cooper" Natty Bumbo in the Leather Leggings series, not Holden Caulfield in David Salinger's Catcher in the Rye.
It's Jack London's Love of Life, not Joseph Heller's Catch 22.
It's Silicon Valley, not Disney.
Even Bill Gates sweating in the garage, Jobs wandering in the park; not Michael Jordan, not Madonna Ciccone.
It is hoped that this strong and proud nation will no longer use the "frontier spirit" to fight against other countries and thus lose its way, but will look up to space, embark on the "Road to Heaven", go to Mars, measure the Milky Way, and still lead the world Forward.
All ethnic groups and countries in the world have their own "frontier" consciousness, or frontier spirit, but with different connotations and different expressions. People often refer to the Chinese as "relocating to the land" and "residence". In fact, the Chinese also have their own "frontier spirit". Otherwise, on this small earth, why are there Chinese people where people live? The American "frontier spirit" is violent and strongly intervening; while the Chinese are integrated, adaptable, and bend as they bend, like water flowing down the ground, moisturizing all things, quietly, but without any gaps. . The same as the Americans, only lies in China's "frontier spirit", that is, there is no "frontier".
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