Now, that is an interesting take! I am continually amazed at the continuing expansion of apartment buildings and mini-warehouses, both reinforcing the need for each other. This area is booming. Yet, ever rising land values and property taxes make it nigh impossible for average folks to live and procreate here. It seems were are cursed by modernity. As my late father often said, "Someday, this will be a good place to move away from."
I had to blink when I looked at your picture, it looks so much like my family! But you are correct, the “modern “ world is full of ugliness and ugly people. I don’t know if we have collapsed already, but I yearn for the world of my childhood. I remember we had almost no plastic!! Imagine! I was born in 1953, I am not sure when plastic became so ubiquitous, but there was very little when I was a kid. Our sandwiches for school were put into waxed paper sandwich bags, or wrapped in a napkin. Our toys were metal or rubber or cloth. And it’s funny, my mother sewed all our clothes, even Daddy’s boxers!! But her sewing machine had exactly one stitch, forward straight stitch (and backwards). No zigzag, no embroidery stitches, like the fancy computerized sewing machine nowadays. Yet it lasted in good working order until she passed away at the age of 97. And she still sewed on it.
Thank you for capturing what so many of us feel. Our instincts cry out against this headlong rush toward total collapse. I am still hopeful that a remnant will remain to rebuild…
Already happened? Hardly. There's a long way down to the bottom of the trough, which might just be a universal grave. What we've experienced instead is a transformation on the way to collapse. To a sociologist with a longitudinal view, the American middle class and the nuclear family established just after WWII, from which many of us are sprung, are unrepeatable historical anomalies. Consider that slightly earlier pictures from the Depression, Dustbowl, and continuous waves of European immigrants to the U.S. tell a decidedly different story: one of undernourishment, poverty, and desperation. The Happy Days of the 50s to 70s turned out to be fleeting for all sorts of reasons. One can certainly wax nostalgic for those halcyon days, but they couldn't be sustained any more than the hyper- or postmodern early 21st century can be relied upon to deliver us safely into a welcoming future.
The 40’s through 70’s were a non-repeatable historical no anachronism, powered by cheap oil.
However, the core values were there in generations prior.
You went to a small neighborhood church rather than a megachurch. Now those neighborhood churches are converted into houses, art studios, or music venues.
I still remember being in the USAF in North Texas in the 80’s where nothing was open on Sunday.
I work in Topeka, KS, where you can still see that there used to be home town industry. We made things. Now the buildings are derelict or owned by the State.
This reminds me of some of JH Kunstler's writings. "The Long Emergency." It's probably more accurate and strategic to consider that the collapse has already started, as opposed to thinking that it's coming in the future. Collapse takes a long time - multiple generations. Unless we do ourselves in quick with a nuclear war. But barring that it's a long grind...and we're probly somewhere near the middle...
How are you finding Mayle? Ironically, there’s probably no book that made the south of France more touristy than Mayle’s. That said, it’s simply one of many. I just wish I could’ve got there before Mayle did!
I agree with the premise of your argument. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, I was a student at Milligan College, now Milligan University, in east Tennessee. I am now a professor of humanities at a state college. Much has changed in the world of academia. Students today are alone, lonely, and isolated from one another. Too many of them seem to have no idea why they are in college and have little enthusiasm for learning. I don't believe the civilization has collapsed, but it is crumbling.
Thank you for this piece. I find myself very much in agreement with you about the disconnection between people and land, people and culture, people and people. And I agree that "living much poorer than we do" is the only true way out of the hellscape that our own greed that fuels the capitalist machine has created.
However, I do not cherish the photos of many of my ancestors. I know of their stifling conformity, their religious intolerance, their forcing women into submissive roles over and over and over, their ugly rejection of anything that smacked of "the other", be it people of color, LGBTQ people, or folks who just plain thought differently. I grieve for the ancestors lost to history because they were not included in those photos or other family memorabilia. Perhaps if our ancestors had been a kinder, more inclusive, more decent people in the first place, we would not be where we are now. There has never been a golden age, just humans mucking through and responding to the culture and environment our ancestors have left us with.
Now, that is an interesting take! I am continually amazed at the continuing expansion of apartment buildings and mini-warehouses, both reinforcing the need for each other. This area is booming. Yet, ever rising land values and property taxes make it nigh impossible for average folks to live and procreate here. It seems were are cursed by modernity. As my late father often said, "Someday, this will be a good place to move away from."
I had to blink when I looked at your picture, it looks so much like my family! But you are correct, the “modern “ world is full of ugliness and ugly people. I don’t know if we have collapsed already, but I yearn for the world of my childhood. I remember we had almost no plastic!! Imagine! I was born in 1953, I am not sure when plastic became so ubiquitous, but there was very little when I was a kid. Our sandwiches for school were put into waxed paper sandwich bags, or wrapped in a napkin. Our toys were metal or rubber or cloth. And it’s funny, my mother sewed all our clothes, even Daddy’s boxers!! But her sewing machine had exactly one stitch, forward straight stitch (and backwards). No zigzag, no embroidery stitches, like the fancy computerized sewing machine nowadays. Yet it lasted in good working order until she passed away at the age of 97. And she still sewed on it.
Well, I sound like a nostalgic old lady, don’t I?
Very interesting article, Brian, thank you.
Thank you for capturing what so many of us feel. Our instincts cry out against this headlong rush toward total collapse. I am still hopeful that a remnant will remain to rebuild…
Already happened? Hardly. There's a long way down to the bottom of the trough, which might just be a universal grave. What we've experienced instead is a transformation on the way to collapse. To a sociologist with a longitudinal view, the American middle class and the nuclear family established just after WWII, from which many of us are sprung, are unrepeatable historical anomalies. Consider that slightly earlier pictures from the Depression, Dustbowl, and continuous waves of European immigrants to the U.S. tell a decidedly different story: one of undernourishment, poverty, and desperation. The Happy Days of the 50s to 70s turned out to be fleeting for all sorts of reasons. One can certainly wax nostalgic for those halcyon days, but they couldn't be sustained any more than the hyper- or postmodern early 21st century can be relied upon to deliver us safely into a welcoming future.
The 40’s through 70’s were a non-repeatable historical no anachronism, powered by cheap oil.
However, the core values were there in generations prior.
You went to a small neighborhood church rather than a megachurch. Now those neighborhood churches are converted into houses, art studios, or music venues.
I still remember being in the USAF in North Texas in the 80’s where nothing was open on Sunday.
I work in Topeka, KS, where you can still see that there used to be home town industry. We made things. Now the buildings are derelict or owned by the State.
Now people show up to jury duty in pajamas.
This reminds me of some of JH Kunstler's writings. "The Long Emergency." It's probably more accurate and strategic to consider that the collapse has already started, as opposed to thinking that it's coming in the future. Collapse takes a long time - multiple generations. Unless we do ourselves in quick with a nuclear war. But barring that it's a long grind...and we're probly somewhere near the middle...
Great writing Brian.
How are you finding Mayle? Ironically, there’s probably no book that made the south of France more touristy than Mayle’s. That said, it’s simply one of many. I just wish I could’ve got there before Mayle did!
Oh, I've read that work a few times before. It is a quick read. And, while not great literature, it is enjoyable.
John Michael Greer coined the term "catabolic collapse" in that we produce something, but then aren't able to maintain it.
Curious if a black man transported from the 1940s would have the same reaction.
I agree with the premise of your argument. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, I was a student at Milligan College, now Milligan University, in east Tennessee. I am now a professor of humanities at a state college. Much has changed in the world of academia. Students today are alone, lonely, and isolated from one another. Too many of them seem to have no idea why they are in college and have little enthusiasm for learning. I don't believe the civilization has collapsed, but it is crumbling.
Thank you for this piece. I find myself very much in agreement with you about the disconnection between people and land, people and culture, people and people. And I agree that "living much poorer than we do" is the only true way out of the hellscape that our own greed that fuels the capitalist machine has created.
However, I do not cherish the photos of many of my ancestors. I know of their stifling conformity, their religious intolerance, their forcing women into submissive roles over and over and over, their ugly rejection of anything that smacked of "the other", be it people of color, LGBTQ people, or folks who just plain thought differently. I grieve for the ancestors lost to history because they were not included in those photos or other family memorabilia. Perhaps if our ancestors had been a kinder, more inclusive, more decent people in the first place, we would not be where we are now. There has never been a golden age, just humans mucking through and responding to the culture and environment our ancestors have left us with.