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The Austerity Issue: don’t panic
David Kynaston, The Independent
Amid the bewildering complexities of the global financial crisis, one simple fact stands out: the little we have left needs to go a lot further. Fear not! We’ll show you how to endure the forthcoming recession with a bit of grit, some nous and the wise advice of our post-war forebears. And you never know, you might have a laugh or two along the way… To begin our special issue, a celebration of the true heroine of austerity Britain: the housewife
… there are lessons we can learn – the lessons of austerity Britain.
“No sooner did we awake from the six years’ nightmare of war and feel free to enjoy life once more, than the means to do so immediately became even scantier than they had been during the war,” lamented Anthony Heap, a local government officer living near St Pancras, London, in his diary at the end of 1945. “Housing, food, clothing, fuel, beer, tobacco – all the ordinary comforts of life that we’d taken for granted before the war, and naturally expected to become more plentiful again when it ended, became instead more and more scarce and difficult to come by.” Little did he, or anyone else, imagine the hard, stony road that lay ahead. It would be another nine years before rationing was finally ended in 1954, nine long years of attritional discomfort and privation.
Rationing and shortages affected almost every area of everyday life. Coal, petrol, cars, clothes, footwear, furniture, bedding, toys – all were hard to come by, being either strictly rationed or near unobtainable. “The greatest disaster is the inability to buy a handkerchief if one has sallied forth without one,” bitterly complained one middle-class housewife to the research organisation Mass Observation; another objected that the fuel shortage “entails poor lighting on railways, in waiting rooms etc, with consequent eye strain and depression”. But for most people, there was during these bleak years one supreme, overriding obsession: food.
… what I found striking – and reassuring – as I went through the diaries and other contemporary records was the extent to which people, above all women, simply got on with things, often through the application of much resourcefulness.
… Two fundamental, timeless lessons emerge from the whole experience. First, that most people will broadly accept straitened times if they are genuinely convinced of their necessity and that there is no alternative. Second, that social cohesiveness during such an unwelcome turn of events will rest to a large degree on the extent to which the pain is administered on an equitable, transparent basis. Even so, should the economic downturn prove severe, it is still likely to be a psychic shock for anyone under, say, the age of 40, for whom the austerity years are not even a folk memory. The process will be a huge challenge to the legitimacy of our democratic political system, though not inconceivably may do wonders to strengthen and reaffirm that rather frayed legitimacy.
Austerity Britain, 1945-1951′, by David Kynaston,is published by Bloomsbury at £25
(2 November 2008)
Guardians of the past uncover green lessons for the present
Martin Wainwright, The Guardian
Stately homes and ancient barns may creak and leak, but their locally sourced, sustainable technology is praised in a report published yesterday as a model for tackling climate change.
Traditional coppicing and a device to supply power to the entire Yorkshire Dales village of Grassington are leading a return to green values by English Heritage, the National Trust and other guardians of the past.
Studying the systems of country estates, which were often self-supporting until the industrial revolution, has triggered modern versions, backed by new technology and energy-saving equipment.
“We need to relearn the old wisdom of self-sufficiency and sustainability,” said Maddy Jago, chair of the Yorkshire and Humber Historic Environment Forum, which is restoring the Dales hydroelectric plant, last used in 1946. Two Archimedes screws – historically used for pumping water upwards – will act as turbines to produce enough power for 100 local homes. “This project alone will help the future of an important historic building, and contribute to reducing greenhouse gases and reliance on fossil fuel.”
A rollcall of imaginative schemes is listed in Heritage Counts 2008, English Heritage’s annual report, which appeals to the government and local planners for more flexibility to encourage sensitive, sustainable adaptations of ancient buildings.
(31 October 2008)
Heritage Counts 2008 is online. The first section of the report (pages 1-15) is devoted to “Climate Change and the Historic Environment.” -BA
Portland sustainability, personal responsibility, and the prospect for oil’s full return in today’s U.S. culture
Jan Lundberg, Culture Change Letter #207
As I walk around Portland, Ore., one of the most progressive cities in the U.S., I ponder the end of life as we know it — without all these machines humming that enable so much of our separateness and insanity. Rather than as a dreamer, I do my pondering as someone told by long time readers and even foundation heads that I’ve been on the right track for many years. But what comforts me most is being a car-free person who has rejected with all his might the consumer economy, such that I might be a survivor in the post-crash world.
… Who are the smart people among us in changing times? Let’s consider those who live outdoors in the Portland area. It’s pretty pleasant outside maybe 10 months a year if you’re lucky, and it’s not that hard to save enough money for an Amtrak ticket (or hopping a free freight) to head to kinder weather to the south where sleeping outside can continue comfortably. No rent! It also means not paying taxes which support more highway construction and the military’s destruction of Iraq and Afghanistan. (Shall we do more than put an anti-war bumper sticker on our four-wheeled oil burner?) Being house-free and car-free also means not being a slave to debt and possessions. If you’re too old to be a successful yuppie and your resumé’s not so hot, what do you do? Teach? You survive.
No doubt you’re passing off surviving outdoors, or even couch surfing and traveling as a lifestyle, as fantasy to seriously consider for one minute. But what about holy men and women of yore who wandered and met strangers every day, to exchange philosophy and meditate on nature’s infinite beauty? To extend the begging bowl for alms while trusting in the Universe? Are such people and times just quaint anachronisms? Who do you know who has actually rejected material things and taken a vow of poverty, to seek adventure and enlightenment? Chances are, none. But what if more people did this? Granted, the U.S. is the opposite culture of that of the sadu’s India. But wouldn’t we learn to live more in the present, and consume in a dependent, helpless fashion less? Would not the consumer economy take a little hit? Wouldn’t the empire builders, generals and corporate VPs of marketing lose out just a little?
Now that you’re nodding your head, consider that you can do the next best thing: go car-free. Sell or give away anything you really don’t need. Do it with someone, or a circle of people, who pledge to see each other through the not so distant future. If you cannot — because you won’t, for whatever reason — can you really look in the mirror and say you are preparing for the post-petroleum world? Are you really giving Mother Earth a break if you cannot or will not go cold turkey from fossil fuel mischief-making? Clever monkeys that we are, some of us are so inventive and caring that we can still retain a car and whatever techno-gadgets and possessions, and really be promoting the future sustainable culture. Okay, but lifestyle change is nigh.
The vibrant Portland scene
Being realistic about lifestyle change underway in a hip, bike-friendly town such as Portland means comparing numbers of hard-core bicyclists — such as those with bike carts — with muscle trucks. The latter outnumber the former badly. Fortunately, the bicyclist-activist is far more likely to be a more vocal and community-engaged citizen, promoting change via personal example and by influencing policy. The muscle truck driver will simply run out of gas and will have to start biking, walking, riding horses, canoeing and sailing — assuming there’s successful gardening, gathering, fishing and hunting (in that order).
Portland’s activist community is in gear to address the economic transformation underway. Rather than call it a “downturn” or “depression” we can refer to it in more positive terms. At a jam-packed meeting at the People’s Food Coop last night, an organizing teach-in and transformational exercise took place. Established groups’ representatives and unaffiliated citizens came together and broke down into many small groups to weigh the positives and negatives of our economic challenges. We exchanged ideas for fundamental change on the levels that matter most, from the individual to the neighborhood to the Portland population. Among the many break out grouplets I was glad to see a liberal scattering of peak oil activists, assuring that not too many illusions about energy “solutions” would distract from the real work of social and behavioral change.
(29 October 2008)
