This Ross Douthat piece is interesting. He sets out how American feminism has consistently resolved its internal disputes - disputes over issues such as surrogacy ("now only eccentric conservatives notice the weird resemblances between California-style surrogacy practices and the handmaids and econowives of Gilead") and pornography - by adopting the logic of capitalism.
Take a current dispute: feminists "were, and are, divided over prostitution, but it’s pretty clear that the version of feminism that supports the rights of sex workers to sell their bodies in the marketplace has the intellectual momentum."
I'd add another example: maternity leave. It's not a particularly feminist or left-wing idea on this side of the Atlantic that new parents, particularly mothers, should be allowed a few months off work when they have a new baby. It's the sort of common sense idea that anyone - social conservatives, fans of breast-feeding, feminists, responsible employers, just people - can get behind. You can get a debate going by talking about some 'extreme' Scandinavian 2-year period, or wondering about how very small businesses cope, or asking whether women on maternity leave should really be accruing holiday - but you're unlikely to find anyone who favours the US model. (Wikipedia: "The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 ... mandates ... 12 weeks unpaid leave to mothers for the purpose of attending to a newborn or newly adopted child. However, the act does not attain universal coverage as it includes several limiting stipulations. In order to receive maternity leave, employees must work in a firm of 50 or more employees, maintain employment with the same business for 12 months and have accumulated at least 1,250 working hours over those 12 months. As of 2012, 59% of American employees were eligible under the FMLA. // The FMLA is the only law that addresses family leave.")
American feminism seems to be more concerned with the (non-business-affecting) issue of whether people's genitals should restrict their choice of lavatories than by the (distinctly business-affecting) issue of maternity leave and maternity pay. But which issue is more likely to make a discernible improvement on the lives of women?
Indeed, this is a feature of American left-wing political thought that extends beyond feminism. Take immigration: there is a left-wing tradition, based in trade unionism and economic protection that seeks to reduce immigration, and a left-wing tradition, based in universalism and anti-nationalism, that seeks to increase it. Guess which tradition won? The one that big business and capitalism favour - i.e. free movement of labour.
One might go even further. Let's be terribly cynical and Marxist about it. Imagine those cigar-chomping capitalists were designing a set of political debates to suit themselves. Wouldn't they want them to consist of both right-wing and left-wing arguments for things they want (open borders, abortions rather than maternity leave) accompanied by loud and angry arguments about trivia to distract people from any economic left-wingery?
It's worth remembering that just because you are woke and right-on and progressive and all the rest of it, you are not necessarily any more antipathetic to capitalism than a crotchety old right-winger who forgets that he can't use that phrase about the woodpile any more. Equally, if you are a social conservative, it's worth remembering that capitalism is not necessarily your friend.
Thursday 28 June 2018
Thursday 14 June 2018
Grenfell Tower
The Grenfell Tower fire happened 1 year ago. This is an almost uniformly excellent article/edition of the LRB about it.
You don't need me to tell you that the fire itself was awful. I didn't read all of the sad bits towards the beginning of the piece. Maybe you can.
I found the account of the aftermath both less emotionally wearing and also more interesting. There are interesting echoes of the Sharon Shoesmith affair in the cavalier, panicky, headline-grabbing treatment of local government by central government. K&C and various Tory councillors come out of it well; central government comes out much less well.
But for this blog post, I want to show you some bits about the aftermath that I found most shocking.
"‘Nobody said “no” to anybody,’ one of the department heads told me. One survivor said he needed a pram for his one-year-old. ‘We said: “No problem: dozens have been donated.”
“No,” he said, “I want a new one.” The one he wanted cost £900. We bought it.’"
Well, that's just a pram, you say. Yes, it is - but it's also an example of a wider pattern of behaviour.
"‘But the council as a whole,’ I asked. ‘Did they help you?’
‘Yes, they did,’ she said. ‘Any time we needed money – for a PlayStation, an Xbox, they bought them for us. They sent keyworkers. I read this stuff, people are unpleasant with what the council did, but for me they did it all.’ Karen and her boys lived in a local hotel for four months, paid for by the council, before accepting a brand new flat off High Street Kensington. Though she had rented privately in the tower, after the fire she was made a permanent social housing tenant. Her flat cost £1.2 million on the open market. She won’t have to begin paying rent or utility bills until July 2019. ‘It’s a relief,’ she said.
‘If this had happened in another country,’ I asked her, ‘do you think the response from the authorities would have been better?’
‘Well, if it happened in my country, in Lebanon,’ Karen said, ‘we would have been thrown on the streets, for the dogs.’"
‘Yes, they did,’ she said. ‘Any time we needed money – for a PlayStation, an Xbox, they bought them for us. They sent keyworkers. I read this stuff, people are unpleasant with what the council did, but for me they did it all.’ Karen and her boys lived in a local hotel for four months, paid for by the council, before accepting a brand new flat off High Street Kensington. Though she had rented privately in the tower, after the fire she was made a permanent social housing tenant. Her flat cost £1.2 million on the open market. She won’t have to begin paying rent or utility bills until July 2019. ‘It’s a relief,’ she said.
‘If this had happened in another country,’ I asked her, ‘do you think the response from the authorities would have been better?’
‘Well, if it happened in my country, in Lebanon,’ Karen said, ‘we would have been thrown on the streets, for the dogs.’"
Of course I am glad that this country is rich enough and generous enough to provide more lavishly for Karen than what she describes as her own country. But does something not strike you as odd about all this? Let me put it this way. The article also quotes the Daily Mail reporting that "The wealthy Tory councillor who was in charge of the Grenfell Tower refurbishment has fled his £1.3 million home after allegedly receiving threats from angry residents". The "wealthy" live in (or flee) £1.3m homes (Daily Mail valuation) while the "poor" live in £1.2m homes (open market valuation): and the poor also get free PlayStations, Xboxes and a couple of years with no rent. If this is what Tory Kensington & Chelsea is like, who do you vote for if you want austerity and inequality?
Well, that's just £1.2m, you say. Yes, it is - but ...
"‘So, with this particular family,’ a senior housing officer said, ‘the government got itself into such a situation that the government itself had to find a two million pound property for the family. They live there now. And of course when other families heard the story they were like, “Where’s my two million pound house?” ... Almost all the residents I spoke to brought this up with me. One of them printed off a list from Zoopla of four properties near Westbourne Grove at two to three million pounds each, and she wrote ‘one’, ‘two’, ‘three’, and ‘four’ beside them in order of preference. She gave it to her keyworker and imagined the council would go ahead and buy one."
"‘So, with this particular family,’ a senior housing officer said, ‘the government got itself into such a situation that the government itself had to find a two million pound property for the family. They live there now. And of course when other families heard the story they were like, “Where’s my two million pound house?” ... Almost all the residents I spoke to brought this up with me. One of them printed off a list from Zoopla of four properties near Westbourne Grove at two to three million pounds each, and she wrote ‘one’, ‘two’, ‘three’, and ‘four’ beside them in order of preference. She gave it to her keyworker and imagined the council would go ahead and buy one."
Read it and weep.
The world today
1. Have you ever wondered what is happening to music nowadays?
Well, classical music being is being weaponised: "“[D]espite a few assertive, late-Romantic exceptions like Mussorgsky and Rachmaninoff,” notes critic Scott Timberg, “the music used to scatter hoodlums is pre-Romantic, by Baroque or Classical-era composers such as Vivaldi or Mozart.”" And it's being ruined in other ways too - see the link. Meanwhile, pop[ular] music is unimportant.
Of course, there is that kind of music that is associated with gangs. But the more you look into it, the more interesting it gets. I tried investigating Stormzy. The music is better than I thought it would be. But also more varied: it turns out he has written a hymn, which he performed at a funeral. Remember that the world is always bigger and more complicated than you think.
2. This is how you prevent war nowadays, with a video and Donald Trump telling you to "Think of it from the real estate perspective".
3. Teenage relationships nowadays: only in America? Only in the Park Slope white-parent community? I find it hard to imagine that kind of behaviour becoming widespread, but then I am terribly old and set in my ways. Some completely different - but also very weird - American young person sexual behaviour is here: "Is it possible for two people to simultaneously sexually assault each other? ... The one important thing you need to know about the case is that according to the lawsuit, a woman has been indefinitely suspended from college because she let a man touch her". (I have left the final word out of that quotation, but without changing the meaning.)
Well, classical music being is being weaponised: "“[D]espite a few assertive, late-Romantic exceptions like Mussorgsky and Rachmaninoff,” notes critic Scott Timberg, “the music used to scatter hoodlums is pre-Romantic, by Baroque or Classical-era composers such as Vivaldi or Mozart.”" And it's being ruined in other ways too - see the link. Meanwhile, pop[ular] music is unimportant.
Of course, there is that kind of music that is associated with gangs. But the more you look into it, the more interesting it gets. I tried investigating Stormzy. The music is better than I thought it would be. But also more varied: it turns out he has written a hymn, which he performed at a funeral. Remember that the world is always bigger and more complicated than you think.
2. This is how you prevent war nowadays, with a video and Donald Trump telling you to "Think of it from the real estate perspective".
3. Teenage relationships nowadays: only in America? Only in the Park Slope white-parent community? I find it hard to imagine that kind of behaviour becoming widespread, but then I am terribly old and set in my ways. Some completely different - but also very weird - American young person sexual behaviour is here: "Is it possible for two people to simultaneously sexually assault each other? ... The one important thing you need to know about the case is that according to the lawsuit, a woman has been indefinitely suspended from college because she let a man touch her". (I have left the final word out of that quotation, but without changing the meaning.)
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