Proletariat

Growing up in the depression, I went to school with children (in my neighborhood) who came to school with serious insect bites. When I visited my friend, Freddie, I noticed that many of the windows around his duplex didn't have screens. One day a child came to school with what looked like a rat bite or something, and was sent to the nurse. The clothes in class were very different, some people wore what might be called "rags," and shoes were defintely an issue. On the flat we had the poorest people, renters and the like. On top of the hills (the Moreno Highlands) the people with money lived, and most of the children came to public school.

Later the lots between the hills and flat were subdivided and we moved to this area after having had a house built. People were trying to upscale themselves here it seemed, and I guess we were among them. Thus it was possible to have a bedroom, a garden and lawn, a garage and pingpong table. Inevitable problems developed because a Filipino family tried to move in (and did!) then a Jewish family, then Chinese, gadzooks. I can remember serious discussion among the neighbors about the possibility of going to the City Council about this, even by those who has been earlier discriminated against.

My ultimate lesson in all of this was a parttime job my automotive mechanic Father got me with one of his wealthy customers. Seems that the man and woman liked to entertain, and needed some help in dealing with the guests, messes and the like. & the man needed some help with some of his stuff, personal affects and the like. The entertainment part wasn't much of a problem, but when it got down the the nitty gritty of picking up after this wealthy man, and doing his "personal bidding" things soon became difficult. He wanted a "pickup man," and I wasn't it. This was my first very serious lesson about class society; we had words and I was out of a job.

Another job I got through my Father was on weekends with a man who owned and managed a small manufacturing operation. He needed someone to go with him on Saturdays to do odd jobs which just couldn't get done during the regular work week. The difference between this man and the earlier mention one was that he was totally respectful about the work process. He explained everything, did not expect "miracles," and never acted like anything was beneath him. Seems to me that he had worked his way "through the ranks." truly appreciated the work of others, and I learned a lot from him.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

Walking into the repair shop of one of the local fixit people, you can't but notice a handmade sign over the work area: "Due to the energy crisis there will be no light at the end of the tunnel." The humor strikes you first, and then the serious side kicks in. There may be a chagrin aspect to this, which I guess we have all felt one way or another. Wouldn't it be nice if we could just dial back to an earlier spendthrift, wasteful time and have it the way it was? But it isn't, everything has changed. Even the arch conservative, neocon types know (beyond their rhetoric) that we have gone beyond the pale here, we are through the energy veil, period.

Next time over to Paul's I intend to take an LED light (& I understand that Phillips has developed an LED light bulb now, not on the market ... yet) and a compact fluorescent bulb. Not that he hasn't discovered these for himself, but I would like to engage him about the sign, and whether it might be possible to have another kind of light bulb there. Paul is my generation, way back in the "dark ages," when we were instructed by parents and others to turn lights off, keep the bills down, etc. Then there were several generations where this was just not an issue, and it seemed cranky (or worse) to ask that things be conserved (!).

Now Bill McGibbon is saying that it isn't possible to change people's behavior through "the facts," that people are so buried in data (& counter data, "push back), that we will have to use slogans and careful media manipulation to engineer change. Thus his 350.org effort (is that the name?). There are university studies to prove this theory, and now those who want to encourage change are going to have to do things another way. "Information Overload" and "Future Shock" are mentioned elsewhere in this BLOG. Those who are in denial about the energy crisis, Global Warming, etc. are not convinced with the so-called facts anyway. We may be entering a new communication era where facts just don't matter that much and the "newspeak" will be based more in the emotional brain than the rational one.

Denial

People ask "what is the driving force in our society/" The answer seems simple to me, perhaps too simple, "Denial," and the most obvious example is "push back," especially in our political life. It is very obvious in other areas too, for example the way that groups respond to criticism, believing that they have "answered" a charge of some kind by a baldfaced denunciation of tbe critic, a "lateral arabesque," intended to put the criticism elsewhere, perhaps off shore.

So denial is the fuel that has taken the place of gasoline as a propellant of choice. It may be time to return to thermodynamics & look at entropy as a serious malady rather then a mode of transportation. Stasis is a dangerous state of affairs, and it seems that with a reliance of dysfunction as strategy and policy we are gambling with pretty much everything. The cover up to much of this is what the well known critic & writer, Chris Hedges, calls "the empire of consumption;" but we are having more and more difficulty consuming our way out of difficulties.

* The examples of denial in our society are seemingly endless, here are a few: problems of nuclear waste, energy in/energy out
equations, eg. ethanol, religious bigotry and hypocrisy, political maneuvering instead of action, etc., ETC.

Canaries in mines

60 Minutes recently hosted a program on a program developed by technologies by Halliburton (and others) to remove natural gas from rock. This is seen as one of the important intermediate technologies which will get us through "dependence on foreign oil," ETC, The problem is that there are deep seated problems with it, which have been pointed out by environmentalist and industry people as well. Fracturing and the wholesale use of water and the accompanying hazards are being pushed aside in the name of energy solutions and the like.

Ethanol is another of these intermediate technologies which have been promulgated by everyone from Federal bureaucrats to the Farm Bureau, and yet it has been proven that the amount of energy applied to producing it does not offset the amount of energy used (!); & it doesn't seem to matter because the forces behind it have gained enough momentum to not only keep it going, but to expand it as well.

Corporate and government precaution seem to be beside the point when our transportation and energy systems could grind to a halt because of problems. It seems that we are at a crossroads here, and that precaution must be employed in order not to create even greater problems for ourselves. Not only do we need whistle blowers (60 Minutes?) but the most intelligent, grounded technocrats imaginable, and ones who are not profit driven. How in the world are to get through this?

Tragedy

A program on NPR lately featured a man who had not listened to his feelings, his concern about a possible problem. And then "tragedy struck," a fire broke out and because some precaution had not been used, some fairly simple process put in place, a friend or relative died. A simple, avoidable tragedy resulted. This event is all too common in a time when people are overloaded with preoccupations and not focusing on basic necessities.

I was raised in a totally different time, of course, and part of that time insisted that things be attended to, that solutions to problems not be assumed. The Boy Scout motto of "Be Prepared" was a further redundancy on this, and it was drummed into us by successive scout masters; it was the mantra we were told to live by. Later in the Navy, we had drills to deal with fires, lifeboat use and the like, and late one night we scrambled to fight a fire in a hold which could have taken the ship in the mid Atlantic.

So I recently spotted a possible problem in a new home moved into by my Son and his Wife and children. I was hesitant to mention it, because in today's society it seemed like it might be "meddling," messing with someone else's business, their sovereignty. But I went back to the story on NPR, thought of that and felt I had to say something, even though there might be problems. The Boy Scouts are considered passe nowadays by many people, perhaps they and other avenues of advice and correction are too old fashioned in a time of rapid change and quick fix solutions.

Hardware

The first hardware store I remember was in Echo Park (L.A.), and I think it was my Grandmother, Nelly Mae, who took me in there. I looked in the drawers and cabinets, the bolts, nuts, washers, what a treasure trove. It was described as a place where you solved problems, got just the right thing to make things work. (Elsewhere in this blog I relate how a father and his daughters lost their hardware store to senseless business development in Minneapolis).

Many years later I discovered another hardware store in another neighborhood, run by a husband and wife team, Steve and Jolene, excellent hardware people. They never failed to come up with a solution to this or that problem, and when I went in with a vexing one one day and asked for their "wizard," Steve took me back to the room where they repaired and reglazed windows, etc., etc. and introduced me to a young Man, Chris. He would fix the problem and did, later to become a friend and work not only with me on projects but works with my carpenter son, Aaron, to this day, and is his friend.

Process, engagement of problems, not something you are about to solve in the aisles or Walmart, KMart or Fleet Farm, unless you are extremely lucky. Lately I found another hardware store, on a side road in Wisconsin, which presents itself as an equipment rental place, construction company that also does snow removal, etc., and only secondarily as a place to solve problems and get needed parts; in other words, a hardware store, When I complained to the man who has been a huge help to me, Jim, he shrugged his shoulders. Are we going to see a resurgence in hardware stores and hardware men and women? I hope so, because this will be an indication that problems can be solved, that you don't trash what doesn't work, it can be fixed.

Vacillations of aging

It is instructive to be with siblings and friends who are getting on in age, and to compare how they see themselves with your own (elderly) attitudes, and those of others. In an age dominated by youth and mass media & advertising, controlled by those who would market to young people or people who would like to appear or be younger than they are, things can be extremely confusing (!). At times it seems that people are almost chameleon like, and at others want to be recognized for what they truly are.

Having been raised by parents who were born the early part of the twentieth century, and grandparents who born in the 1880s, the dimensions of the changes are undoubtedly greater than for others. My grandparents showed their age and didn't seem to need appear younger. My parents were more "youthful" in their elder years, but I never got the idea that they wanted to appear any younger than they were.

At present my confusions are mostly generated by the differences in appearence and attitude, I guess. Often when I am speaking with someone who wants to be in a younger generation (and tries for those appearances) but is stuck with beliefs and mindsets of his own generation (or even earlier ones) it makes me feel a little crazy, and I will find myself moving away. My suspicion is that this may become even more extreme in the future, since the social trends seem to be more supportive and even forgiving of Chamelon like lifestyles; and everything from plastic surgery techniques, organ transplants and advanced cosmetics
may just push the envelopes.