AllConsuming.org.uk

I’ve not posted for a while and feel guilty.  I’ve been on holiday and had a smashing time (thank you).  Its not that the combination of ideas and internet cafes didn’t crop up its just that I thought for once Id practice what I preach and do nothing. I found it very hard. Doing nothing in a  consumer society is tough as we are programmed to work and shop. And before you ask I did almost no shopping.

But I was back with a bang at the weekend.  On Saturday  I spoke at the Greenbelt festival. Id never heard of it but 20,000 religious and progressive people turn up at Cheltenham racecourse every year to talk, listen and learn. I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I confessed to not being religious but being open to spirituality and not liking strict rationalism or militant secularism.

Then on Sunday it was over to the Climate Camp at Blackheath and therefore overlooking Canary Wharf and the heart of finacialised capitalism. I did a session with Tristam Stuart who has written a great book on food waste that you can find out more about here. A tent full of green campaigners kicked around consumption and political change; how can we live in a low or zero growth economy and get people to vote for it?

This could all sound a bit marginal and out there if it weren’t for the fact that just two days before no less a figure than Tony Blair had made a speech saying that the pace of modern life and the restless search for short-term material gain in a globalised economic system constituted a threat both the to the plant and to human identity. It matters much less that this a man making £millions from speeches in very short-term material gain and more that he is about as mainstream, as it gets.

In fact many came up afterwards at the Climate Camp and said they were glad that someone like me was there to make a connection with mainstream politics and that Ed Miliband – the good as we are going to get climate minister breaking his back to get the best deal at Copenhagen should not do as the banner I photographed at the event suggested he should.

The news today is that 50,000 children qualified for university wont be able to go because there aren’t sufficient places. This may have been okay except for two things.  The government built higher education up as the be all and end all of  a successful life and second they turned it into a quasi market by the introduction of fees. Now children are told you can pass the exams an have the money but you still can’t come.  Some market that turned out to be. Markets are good for  somethings – like eeer books.  But bad for others like education. Fees were introduced to force competition between universities and to get undergraduates used to debt, risk and push them towards high earning jobs. It obviously  made sense to someone in the boom years – but looks like a very bad idea now.

OK its confession time! I’ve now been to Disneyland Paris. It wasn’t my choice – of course.  But that of Erica and Euan my partners children. I’m both amazed and appalled by the place. The scale and efficiency of the operation is awesome. Tens of thousands of people shuffle around with a smile on their face passing from ride to ride and show to show. But this is just the most extreme version of the turbo consumption that defines modern life. Here people buy thrills that in truth offer no danger. They buy a dream becasue their own lives are so shallow. The sight of adults posing with people in Mickey Mouse uniforms as if they are real is just weird. At every corner is a shop that sells yet more Disney merchandise. And yet millions flock here. Why? Because it is the best there is and you have to give the Disneybosses their dues. They do turbo-consumerism better than most.   Where is the harm in that?

I’m lucky enough to be spending a few days in France.  One thing you notice is the lack of cloned shops.  There are very few chains but still a lot of small independents. Now here is where I get accused of elitism;  I know chains like Primark sell things cheaply and at one level give people a choice but the clothes are badly made, they are quick fashion, the terms and conditions of overseas workers are hard to judge, they use up a lot of resources and still leave everyone looking pretty much the same.  Given we need to shop why don’t we pursue policies that leave towns looking distinct so you actually feel like you come from somewhere different and which ultimately sell a greater range of products. Planning laws could easily be used to ensure high streets are properly mixed rather than dominated by a few big corporations who can pay the most money to occupy key sites.

The number one issue we control is growth.  By any calculation if the rest of the planet lived like we do then  we would need between three and eight planets.  The problem with unsustainability  is that it can’t be sustained. The train is running out of track. But at what rate can we continue to grow in a way that is sustainable and perhaps more precisely what bits of the economy can grow – ie the low carbon bits?

A clever and influential person said to me today when we discussed this that they didn’t want  a world in which no one could go to university, the theatre or a holiday each year.  You get their point.  But how much is enough?  Will new technology save the day?  Tim Jackson has written an intriguing paper here on prosperity without growth. How much of ‘it all’ can we have? As Minister ponder food shortages its about time the discussion began.

(I’m off for a bit. If I find an internet café I will blog when I can. Normal service will resume after the Bank Holiday).

Today I was cycling to a meeting and saw this.  I can hear you ask “what meeting was that Neal?”.  Well seeing that you asked so nicely I was cycling to a meeting with Greenpeace to discuss saving the planet.  Can I get any more points for being PC? Anyway it caught my eye.  Is this really a new public place with brand new shops?  I went to the site of the developers London Derwent. Its a commercial entity looking to maximise its return for shareholders.

So how public can it be?  Will it allow beggars and Big Issue sellers to ply their trade?  Will it allow skateboarders to skate or old people just to rest? Can the family have a picnic there?  I doubt it.  I would guess it will be policed by  private security guards to help maximise profit.

Someone who has written about this loss of public spaces brilliantly is Anna Minton in her new book Ground Control. I suggested you consume this one too. More and more of our cities are being colonized by private land owners and enclosed for profit. We are losing places to be free, to have things for free and be citizens and not just consumers.  Oh and plans are afoot to save the planet.  Don’t worry.

When we think about consumption we tend to think about shops.  That’s fair enough.  But we consume much more than what’s on the high street.  What we buy is status and advantage. And one of the most important things many consume for status and advantage is education. The purchase of education plays a duel role – if you go to Eton or any public school and then Oxbridge or a top university you are buying status but also the virtual guarantee of future consuming success.  It then becomes self reinforcing; more money allows you to buy your children’s advantage.

Education is becoming a position good – valued because of the advantage it gives us over others. This is not just a bout access to private education but state schools are now being refashioned to offer parents choice through trust and faith schools and academies. But advantage is still gained by the rich, the powerful and the well informed. If there is advantage to be had then someone with the skills and resources will take it.  Its human nature.  That’s okay on the high street – but shouldn’t everyone have an equal chance to make the most of their lives and not be held back by the brute luck of birth and how rich their parents are or how quick their brain is?

Today those representing independent schools (read fee paying of up to £30,000 oper year) are defending the right of their customers to buy advantage just as a car salesperson would. They get charitable status and the tax breaks that come with it but feel they owe society no responsibility in return. Instead they argue that they provide the business and political leaders of the future for the country and the people should be grateful. It is high time we asked not just whether they should have this tax free status but whether anyone should be allowed to buy such advantage. They suck the life out of the state system and divide the country. We should have a choice, after all we live in a democracy, of when we want to choose!

The debate about access to free goods and services is raging. Rupert Murdoch has said he will start charging for on-line access to the Times. I think that’s fair enough.  Someone has to write and research the stuff.  We have to pay for good journalism (I’m unsure where that leaves the Sun?). It’s the other things that we now pay for that we never used to that get me; university, dentistry, parking, school books etc.  Politicians want to bring in co-payments for health so that those who can top-up for better service do.

What underpins all this is the notion that only by paying and choosing is anything of any value. Choice has become the key value of our society.  But it always means some can make better choices than others because they have more money.  That might be ok on the high street but there are places where we should be equal citizens and not just competing consumers. We should demand the choice about when not to choose.

Just when it gets too much and you feel there is nothing but the shopping juggernaut small things happen that keep the flame of hope alive.  The Liberal Democrats have called for the end of airbrushed adverts that promote impossible body shapes to women. Not earth shattering I know but an important step in controlling the market.  And then Iranian democracy protesters have targeted Nokia for allegedly collaborating with the regime.  A boycott is hitting the company hard. Life for those who want more balanced consumption oscillates between despair and hope.

Today I had this article in the Guardian.

There are lots of responses. This one caught my eye from DocMolotove:

“Who the hell needs politics and shit if you’ve got cool stuff? All politics seem to be is the endless whining of everyone who want their stuff to be classed sacred and everyone elses stuff to be classed as profane. Yet no-ones prepared to give up anything of theirs, modify their views or actually do anything but yabber yabber yabber in the make believe world of hot air. Least stuff is real and not just a load of old posturing arse like the majority of views spouted in newspapers.”