Mud, glorious mud
Feb. 1st, 2006 12:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
imomusMy new column at Wired has just gone up. It's called Nostalgia For Mud (you can also listen to it in a rather muddy mp3) and it cites all sorts of examples of stuff coming full circle: Kraftwerk singing about cars, trains, spacelab... and then bicycles, Clinton Street restaurants selling pasta at $45 a plate, star architects designing houses with outside bathrooms, and so on. In fact, I could well have included Bernhard Willhelm's 2005 Spring-Summer menswear collection, with its construction worker-inspired chic.
"Coming full circle" isn't exactly the right image here; it's more of a spiral shape I have in mind as a model, an upward coil like a spring or helix.
As we rise economically, we pass our point of origin, but each time we pass it we're higher up. It's not an "eternal return" so much as a new view on our point of departure, which begins to look more and more picturesque the higher we rise above it. After an initial nouveau riche disdain for the poor lifestyle we've recently left behind, we begin to feel less threatened by its privations, nostalgically attracted to its simplicity, austerity, healthiness and ethical virtue. We begin to embrace the postmaterialist values Ronald Inglehart talks about.
As I point out in the piece (quoting Adorno), this "nostalgia for mud" can be a bourgeois bohemian affectation, a desire to see soul precisely where there is none. But simplicity, austerity and poverty may be something we have increasingly to deal with; as another Wired story points out, "it can no longer be denied: a rapidly growing world population and the industrialization and economic growth that comes with it is setting the stage for an environmental catastrophe". A voluntary embrace of Slow Life-type simplicity -- the adoption of low-calorie, low-consumption, low-growth, low-population lifestyles -- may just pre-emp this catastrophe, but if it doesn't, the poverty that follows rising sea levels, drought and desertification won't be voluntary at all. If we don't embrace it voluntarily, our nostalgie de la boue may become de rigeur.
"Coming full circle" isn't exactly the right image here; it's more of a spiral shape I have in mind as a model, an upward coil like a spring or helix.
As we rise economically, we pass our point of origin, but each time we pass it we're higher up. It's not an "eternal return" so much as a new view on our point of departure, which begins to look more and more picturesque the higher we rise above it. After an initial nouveau riche disdain for the poor lifestyle we've recently left behind, we begin to feel less threatened by its privations, nostalgically attracted to its simplicity, austerity, healthiness and ethical virtue. We begin to embrace the postmaterialist values Ronald Inglehart talks about.As I point out in the piece (quoting Adorno), this "nostalgia for mud" can be a bourgeois bohemian affectation, a desire to see soul precisely where there is none. But simplicity, austerity and poverty may be something we have increasingly to deal with; as another Wired story points out, "it can no longer be denied: a rapidly growing world population and the industrialization and economic growth that comes with it is setting the stage for an environmental catastrophe". A voluntary embrace of Slow Life-type simplicity -- the adoption of low-calorie, low-consumption, low-growth, low-population lifestyles -- may just pre-emp this catastrophe, but if it doesn't, the poverty that follows rising sea levels, drought and desertification won't be voluntary at all. If we don't embrace it voluntarily, our nostalgie de la boue may become de rigeur.
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(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-31 03:38 pm (UTC)In the year two thousand and seven.
A Pyraneean gite will be my heaven.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-31 04:36 pm (UTC)http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2006/01/31/property-paranoia/
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-31 07:04 pm (UTC)At what point can we say our needs are met? Is Mr. Monbiot willing to forgo his electricity and running water? Let's say food, clothes, water, shelter and electricity are all we need; why bother redirecting tax dollars from the rich to the poor? We would only risk making them more unhappy.
The greeks at least stumbled upon this insight 3,000 years ago. They celebrated tragedy in their art because they knew it was an essential element of life. If struggle is undesirable, and ignorance is bliss, why did man bother to evolve from ape? Why let the child grow into a man?
Momus seems to be mostly arguing for the Slow Life on the basis of our supposedly unsustainable consumption (and reckless usage) of natural resources. The passage of time, however, has only made past advocates of this "ticking timebomb" theory, like Paul Ehrlich, look incredibly foolish.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-01 12:22 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-01 08:45 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-31 04:40 pm (UTC)None of this nostalgia for mud is happening in Canada. Ottawa is about as spread out as Tokyo and has only a million including its satellite cities. The most popular cars are SUVs, and the public transportation is worse than in India, especially because it's less frequent.
The poverty is here already; but there are no changes in sight. You can look for a job here for three or four years, even if you are an engineer or have a BA or Masters. But the Anglo-Saxons all seem to have jobs; and none of the press reveals the high unemployment rate.
When it comes to news in this country, nobody seems to be aware of the issues in your Mud article.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-31 04:44 pm (UTC)Have you got my e-mail? I sent it yesterday to your gmail account...
Sorry for disrurbing you again, but I'm really worried...
Thanks in advance,
Peter
e
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-31 05:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-01 12:24 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-01 03:11 pm (UTC)I wish I could appreciate truffles but I just don't. Rather go to Soba-Ya any day, if it's a noodle I want.
oops
Date: 2006-02-01 03:12 pm (UTC)worksafe
Date: 2006-01-31 05:25 pm (UTC)Re: worksafe
Date: 2006-01-31 05:30 pm (UTC)Highwheel? Check.
Shack in the woods? Check.
Hummingbirds and horses? Check.
Ability to go for days without food, water, or sleep? Check.
I'll leave the light on. Candle, that is.
Re: worksafe
Date: 2006-01-31 06:32 pm (UTC)Re: worksafe
Date: 2006-02-01 01:31 am (UTC)I'd like to see this one in motion.
Date: 2006-01-31 05:48 pm (UTC)Topical Blog...
Date: 2006-01-31 05:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-31 06:32 pm (UTC)and lo-fi arial pink pop. ;)
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-31 06:38 pm (UTC)Spaceship earth can sustain more human beings if mankind embraces the incredible technologies that it has had at its disposal for only a fraction of its biological existence, and cooperates to design a planet where resources, especially electricity, the ethical slave of human endeavor, and knowledge are freed from short sighted economic interests and distributed equitably for the betterment of humankind. And we should also have floating cities.
link
Date: 2006-01-31 10:48 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-31 11:02 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-01 01:34 am (UTC)http://www.theonion.com/content/business (http://www.theonion.com/content/business)
Don't be fooled by the tartan, ladies!
Date: 2006-02-01 07:10 am (UTC)It's the lowland vs. highland distinction that gets tricky--the calves are a more reliable distinguishing feature, in that case.
W
(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-01 09:47 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-03 11:45 am (UTC)