More complex society

When I built a park for winos in the late 1970s there was one common refrain among the Street people of that era. The two images on this page show the park under construction and after completion. The park was on the corner of Sixth Street and Minna in San Francisco and lasted two years.

The most common explanation that men and women who patronized the park gave for wanting to live on the street was that society was too complex. They would explain the need to have a telephone and a bank account and a driver's license in order to rent a decent apartment. Each of these things required the other in a circular impossibility.

Today our society is significantly more complex than the late 1970s.

That was about the last time I had to take a written driver's test. I recently had to take the test again because of my age. Last time the driver's handbook was 16 pages long. Today it is 96 pages long.

The increased complexity of driving is related to the following changes: we now have disability stickers and parking, we now have very large trucks on the highway, we also have light rail on the streets, we have to cope with orders of magnitude more bicycles and more signage.

I passed the written exam only to find out that I needed to take a written exam for my motorcycle license. This was based on a brand-new book of 40 pages. The details required a description of the five different kinds of motor powered vehicles and endless other requirements including laws about the proper way to stop using appropriate brakes and the way to ride through gravel. I’m telling the truth.

I think that is sufficient evidence to show that our society is getting more complex, rapidly.

The two driver's tests require a very high level of test taking skills (the multiple choices depended on highly refined language skills) and suggest to me why many ordinary people don't have driver's licenses.

We are definitely making life difficult for ordinary people. We are probably increasing the number of people who want to live on the streets and drop out of our society.