"The public realm is the connective tissue of our everyday world," as James Howard Kunstler argues in "The Public Realm and the Common Good” (Kunstler 521). Kunstler published his book, Home from Nowhere: Remaking Our Everyday World for the Twenty- first Century, in 1996. His claim is that communities of America have become very “dismal” because they are no longer functioning properly as the connective tissue (521). He believes that “when you degrade the public realm, you will automatically degrade the quality of your civic life” (523). In his essay, Kunstler also provides a second part of his two- part definition of the public realm: “the public realm is the physical manifestation of the common good” to show the necessary relationship between the surroundings and the behavior of society (521, 523). In an attempt to explain these definitions of the public realm in Kunstler’s essay, this essay will examine the relationship between “chronological connectivity,” the “common good” and “citizenship” to show the deterioration of “civic life” because “consumers” are not playing their roles as responsible “citizens” and no longer care for their communities (523, 524). The link between "connective tissue" and "chronological connectivity" are meant to support the idea that our lives were affected by others decision, and we will affect our own futures. the futures that we create will affect the future for generations to come. Kunstler's essay takes place in Saratoga Springs, New York from about 1911 to the 1990's, at and around, the Grand Union Hotel (524). This hotel was once the largest hotel which allowed people to experience the best part of the city and was thought of as the centerpiece of the town where all members of the community could meet up (524). As Kunstler expresses "where I live, Saratoga Springs, New York, there once existed a magnificent building called the Grand Union Hotel” (524). Kunstler describes how the architecture of the streets "enhanced the lives of everybody in town," and "nourished our civilization" (524, 525). The building in itself represented Kunstler's idea of "chronological connectivity." The Grand Union Hotel was a place that could be enjoyed by everyone, it not only connected the town and "citizens" to its past, but was built to be there for the future (524). He later goes on to discuss how "in 1953 America stood at the brink of the greatest building spree in history, and the very qualities that made the Grand Union Hotel so wonderful were antithetical to all the new stuff that America was about to build” (525). The Grand Union Hotel was “demolished with a kind of mad glee” and was replaced with a strip mall. Kunstler describes the new strip mall as "the anti- place" because it did not house that connection between the past and the future (525). Put soundly, he feels the consumers felt “it was okay to simply throw away the past. They, [the ‘consumers’], certainly didn’t care about the town’s past, and their interest in the town’s future was limited only to technicalities of selling dog food and soap flakes” (525). "Consumers" no longer realize how their decisions will in the long run affect their futures. Now-a-days people have become too involved with their personal lives and what they need to accomplish. We have become too caught up in the hustle and bustle of our everyday lives that we no longer see nor have time for the simple things. We have lost sight of what is most important and are too caught up in the now, that we are no longer take our futures or our childrens' futures into consideration. We have made life a race. Life is now a competition of whose business will succeed, who will earn more profit, who will rise to the top. We have become quite selfish which, in turn, has played a part in the destruction of our communities. James Howard Kunstler believes that "community, as it once existed in the form of places worth caring about, supported by local economies, has been extirpated by an insidious corporate colonialism that doesn't care about the places from which it extracts its profit or the people subject to its operations” (521). The corporate industry does not care about citizens, but only cares about consumers and the growth of their industry. Kunstler holds it to be true that modern community is worsening because consumers are taking over. In fact, in his essay, he writes "consumers, unlike citizens, have no responsibilities, obligations, or duties to anything larger than their own needs and desires, certainly not anything like the common good” (523). It is clear that because there is no longer any equilibrium, the community can not function as previously. Kunstler defines civic life as "what goes on in the public realm," and continues to convey that "civic life r vefers to our relations with our fellow human beings- in short, our roles as citizens” (523). Because there is no longer that bond between humans, there no longer seems to be a clear understanding on what "civic life" should really be. In his book Brave New World, Aldous Huxley explains that “There is no civilization without social stability” (Huxley 42). One can conclude that James Howard Kunstler thinks that in order for a community to function as a whole there must be balance and interaction between, not only the “consumers,” but the true “citizens” as well. There has been a disconnection between "consumers" and true "citizens." "Consumers" do not care about the same things "citizens" do and therefore no longer interact with "citizens." If "civic life" means that there is a nexus between all human beings, this is proof that there has been some sort of degradation of "civic life." Kunstler's definition of the public realm is that it is "the connective tissue of our everyday world” (521) and that “the public realm is the physical manifestation of this common good”(523). He asserts that “chronological connectivity lends meaning and dignity to our little lives” (524) and that “connection with the past and the future is a pathway that literally charms us in the direction of sanity and grace” (524). Referring back to the building of the new strip malls, it is evident that Kunstler believes that the new way of building homes, schools, and other buildings shows that people no longer care about the community they live in. It is also evident that he believes these same people are not worried about what their community will be like in the future. Architecture is poorly being built, because “consumers” would much rather spend the money needed to build decent housing on advertisements for things that will not have much meaning in the future. “This disconnection from the past and future ends up diminishing us spiritually, impoverishing us socially, and degrading the aggregate set of cultural patterns that we call civilization” (524). In the beginning of his essay Kunstler states that “their architectural shortcomings aside, these places are dismal because the public realm that binds them together is degraded, incoherent, ugly and meaningless” (521). All in all, Kunstler makes it clear that in order for America to improve its modern day communities, the correlation between "chronoligical connectivity," the "common good," and "citizenship" must be restored, "consumers" must regain sight of what matters most and reclaim their role as true "citizens." They must no longer care for “meaningless” objects, but in turn should take responsibility and control of the things that are longer lasting and will affect their futures, therefore being more enjoyable.