Jul 15, 2022·edited Jul 15, 2022Liked by FFatalism
This makes me think of Tony Blair. Mr Contemporary Received Pronunciation himself (I learned something there) was all about the aspiration for everyone in New Britain to 'join the middle classes.' I remember thinking exactly the same at the time about 'aspiration': the shallowness and stupidity of what people are supposed to be 'aspiring' to. The notion that 'being middle class' in a Tony Blair sort of way was so obviously desirable that everyone would be onboard. And today every Tory leadership candidate today will churn out the same stuff. Growth. Aspiration. The middle classes - even as the middle classes are hollowed out by neo-feudalism.
Incidentally, I went to Oxford University, as the first from my lower-middle class aspirational family ever to go to university. I remember being scared of being outclassed by the ferocious intelligence of all the people I expected to meet there. It turned out that about 5% of the students were very clever, and the rest were mostly conformists who knew how to work. This was my first awakening ...
To be honest it didn't worry us at all. We raised our children to make choices and learn from their mistakes I suppose. My daughter decided to go on from school to university as she wanted to teach English Lit. She has made a success of her career so far although not to the school managements approval. She is a wild card in many respects and brings much more to the classroom experience than the standard curriculum for English Lit. I am proud of her efforts to impart into her students a love of reading books as opposed to txt messages. I say this as a retired bus driver and shepherd !
I am not a British native but I have made regular visits to the Island since 1982. Your reflections in this piece gave words to what has become obvious to me in the landscape and its degradation, both in urban and rural settings. Thank you for these. Lucidity has its own beauty.
They started mining iron up here in 1884, before that it was timber - white and red pine - and fur. The fur trade died out in the 1880's, timber in the 1920's. In both cases because of massive over harvesting.
Minnesota iron pretty much provided the tanks, planes and ships that won WWII, and built/rebuilt afterwards. Now the mining companies estimate most of the ore playing out in 10-20 years. Between less ore and automation, jobs are going away but no one wants to admit that.
Several manufacturing interests have tried up here, but with mixed success.
If you replace London with Minneapolis/Saint Paul (The Cities) and York with Hibbing(Mn), you have described the Iron Range quite well. There are plenty up here who refuse to accept that iron mining is going away as a source of jobs, for various reasons. But few are even considering developing any kind of industrial alternative. They complain about kids leaving for the Cities and depopulating the range, and yet they have all bought into the aspiration game.
What a beautiful photo. It makes me wonder at the mindset of the people who built it; outwardly anyway, there seems a focus on beauty, symmetry, longevity, reverence. Sometimes, when we have gone to visit people, my wife (who is more intuitive than I am) will afterward comment on the type and position of various objects in the main room of the home, as if they literally express the spiritual or core beliefs of the people who live there, as if we’ve visited the sanctuary of a temple and not simply a living room. Sometimes one can overthink things, of course, and sometimes, well, the highway really is the hell it seems.
My previous job allowed me to bike to work in four minutes and walk in ten. Then the company moved a town over and I had to drive. It was a beautiful drive along the foothills and it was only 20 minutes with little traffic.
I hadn't put it together until now, but I would still drive like the driver's you describe. Trying to pass everybody. Until it dawned on me...why do I want to get to work 3 minutes sooner and be a jerk in the process. So I slowed down.
Near the end of my tenure there I found myself driving *well* below the speed limit. Actually, I didn't want to get to work at all. Aspiration will kill you. I like hope a lot better.
Jul 15, 2022·edited Jul 15, 2022Liked by FFatalism
Hope over aspiration, I like it. Here in the US, the South as a region, and all of its various subregional identities have been seriously eroded in short order. But they are still there, under the layers. I usually say that it simply requires patience, waiting them out.
Another fine piece FC&F. Which has fired me up to make a comment.
My son many years ago on gaining 3 good A Levels at school bitterly disappointed his teachers by declining to go on to university. He decided he wanted to work with his hands and joined the RAF. He now has a loving family and a job he enjoys as an aircraft technician though no longer in the forces. He told me awhile ago that he'd dodged a bullet by declining to go to university as he knew it was not what he wanted from a job. Ambition can be a demanding mistress for many.
And another thought on the words of Christopher Lasch ' Meritocracy drains talent away from the lower classes and thus deprives them of effective leadership'.
The loud young man is what Nassim Nicholas Taleb (author of The Black Swan) calls an “intellectual yet idiot” (IYI). Academia is filled with IYIs writing papers for one another, doling out credentials to similarly half-educated blockheads. They never start businesses or risk their lives (and their fortunes) for anyone else since they have no skin in any game. They are quite literally paper tigers, people who look good on paper, make a lot of noise and threaten other people with some kind of cancellation. But they are cowards. Useless people! In a real emergency, one needs to stand as far away as possible from an IYI.
This makes me think of Tony Blair. Mr Contemporary Received Pronunciation himself (I learned something there) was all about the aspiration for everyone in New Britain to 'join the middle classes.' I remember thinking exactly the same at the time about 'aspiration': the shallowness and stupidity of what people are supposed to be 'aspiring' to. The notion that 'being middle class' in a Tony Blair sort of way was so obviously desirable that everyone would be onboard. And today every Tory leadership candidate today will churn out the same stuff. Growth. Aspiration. The middle classes - even as the middle classes are hollowed out by neo-feudalism.
Incidentally, I went to Oxford University, as the first from my lower-middle class aspirational family ever to go to university. I remember being scared of being outclassed by the ferocious intelligence of all the people I expected to meet there. It turned out that about 5% of the students were very clever, and the rest were mostly conformists who knew how to work. This was my first awakening ...
To be honest it didn't worry us at all. We raised our children to make choices and learn from their mistakes I suppose. My daughter decided to go on from school to university as she wanted to teach English Lit. She has made a success of her career so far although not to the school managements approval. She is a wild card in many respects and brings much more to the classroom experience than the standard curriculum for English Lit. I am proud of her efforts to impart into her students a love of reading books as opposed to txt messages. I say this as a retired bus driver and shepherd !
I am not a British native but I have made regular visits to the Island since 1982. Your reflections in this piece gave words to what has become obvious to me in the landscape and its degradation, both in urban and rural settings. Thank you for these. Lucidity has its own beauty.
They started mining iron up here in 1884, before that it was timber - white and red pine - and fur. The fur trade died out in the 1880's, timber in the 1920's. In both cases because of massive over harvesting.
Minnesota iron pretty much provided the tanks, planes and ships that won WWII, and built/rebuilt afterwards. Now the mining companies estimate most of the ore playing out in 10-20 years. Between less ore and automation, jobs are going away but no one wants to admit that.
Several manufacturing interests have tried up here, but with mixed success.
So, yes, it does feel like light speed.
If you replace London with Minneapolis/Saint Paul (The Cities) and York with Hibbing(Mn), you have described the Iron Range quite well. There are plenty up here who refuse to accept that iron mining is going away as a source of jobs, for various reasons. But few are even considering developing any kind of industrial alternative. They complain about kids leaving for the Cities and depopulating the range, and yet they have all bought into the aspiration game.
What a beautiful photo. It makes me wonder at the mindset of the people who built it; outwardly anyway, there seems a focus on beauty, symmetry, longevity, reverence. Sometimes, when we have gone to visit people, my wife (who is more intuitive than I am) will afterward comment on the type and position of various objects in the main room of the home, as if they literally express the spiritual or core beliefs of the people who live there, as if we’ve visited the sanctuary of a temple and not simply a living room. Sometimes one can overthink things, of course, and sometimes, well, the highway really is the hell it seems.
My previous job allowed me to bike to work in four minutes and walk in ten. Then the company moved a town over and I had to drive. It was a beautiful drive along the foothills and it was only 20 minutes with little traffic.
I hadn't put it together until now, but I would still drive like the driver's you describe. Trying to pass everybody. Until it dawned on me...why do I want to get to work 3 minutes sooner and be a jerk in the process. So I slowed down.
Near the end of my tenure there I found myself driving *well* below the speed limit. Actually, I didn't want to get to work at all. Aspiration will kill you. I like hope a lot better.
Hope over aspiration, I like it. Here in the US, the South as a region, and all of its various subregional identities have been seriously eroded in short order. But they are still there, under the layers. I usually say that it simply requires patience, waiting them out.
http://www.wingedelmfarm.com/blog/2015/06/27/the-south-is-a-neolithic-fort/
Another fine piece FC&F. Which has fired me up to make a comment.
My son many years ago on gaining 3 good A Levels at school bitterly disappointed his teachers by declining to go on to university. He decided he wanted to work with his hands and joined the RAF. He now has a loving family and a job he enjoys as an aircraft technician though no longer in the forces. He told me awhile ago that he'd dodged a bullet by declining to go to university as he knew it was not what he wanted from a job. Ambition can be a demanding mistress for many.
And another thought on the words of Christopher Lasch ' Meritocracy drains talent away from the lower classes and thus deprives them of effective leadership'.
The loud young man is what Nassim Nicholas Taleb (author of The Black Swan) calls an “intellectual yet idiot” (IYI). Academia is filled with IYIs writing papers for one another, doling out credentials to similarly half-educated blockheads. They never start businesses or risk their lives (and their fortunes) for anyone else since they have no skin in any game. They are quite literally paper tigers, people who look good on paper, make a lot of noise and threaten other people with some kind of cancellation. But they are cowards. Useless people! In a real emergency, one needs to stand as far away as possible from an IYI.