Civilisation (1969) Part 13 of 13 - Heroic Materialism

I don't think that there's any better time to end this long posting of this marvelous old tv-series than on Christmas Eve. Germans don't celebrate Christmas Day as such but Christmas Eve. One can say that in this last episode Kenneth Clark wanted to say, in short, history is our ourselves. Something similar Winston Churchill would have muttered adding "and we're still writing it". My grandfather was born in the 19th Century and I spend plenty of summers at my grandparents to know that we're missing out of something really important there days. Often I've been confronted with the same impression that we have too many things and hold too little of real importance high enough in our daily life. My grandparents weren't poor althought they were indeed working class, but in their home there were actually more pictures of family up than any nick-nack that would show a good standard of living. Just try to think of a life now lived without a car, without a tv-set, without a wifi internet connection, etc. One can't any more and that's our loss. We need rethink everything because in the end it's indeed not technology that will save us from anything big but our dogged persistence to survive. Have a great Christmas Eve and 2023 still to come! [media=https://youtu.be/waoEyjE_dtU?t=285]

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samueltyler2 · 80-89, M

My grandparents escaped from Czarist Russia-Poland during the pogroms of the late 1800s. My grandfather trudged through a snowy forest with his sister to escape with their lives and little else. They work hard and raised three children one went to some college, but made sure their kids got educated. My parents, first generation Americans strived to have us the material things we needed, my dad was a salesman and had to drive to his clients, so, we were "rich," we had a car. We grew up laying on the floor looking up at the household radio and listening to music and detective mysteries. Then along came tv, no handheld technology, etc. My kids, on the other hand, experienced the beginning of the age of personal technology. Their kids are fully into it. Their parents try the limit and or control their use, but they depend on it for so much of their lives

Are they better or worse of for it, I hope, eventually, better. I do wonder about the damage to their thumb joints, which are not evolving fast enough to keep up with the technology.

samueltyler2 · 80-89, M

I have a parallel, but related observation. "we" tend to erase much of our history. In the US, we throw out so much daily, that our garbage dumps are overflowing. We tear down perfectly good homes to built new ones rather than enjoy the older architecture. We are a "now " and a "me" society. The attitude is he who has the most toys wins the race.

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Heartlander · 80-89, M

@samueltyler2 A better idea may be to remedy unsafe conditions when they are revealed. Waiting 20+ years for someone to sell that property or when they try to improve it just creates economic humps that get more and more difficult to overcome.

Urban renewal has been too much of just that, replacing poor neighborhoods with rich neighborhoods. And mostly they are neighborhoods where the properties become demolition candidates, and so depressed in value that smart buyers could afford to demolish or partly demolish and rebuild. That's not the same as keeping older neighborhoods viable with routine upkeep and upgrade.

This is a hot topic in practically every city in America. It's about sustaining core neighborhoods rather than waiting for them to deteriorate to the point where demolition and renewal seems to be the only way to bring it back to life. The indicators are all there: raising crime rates, shrinking populations, more public housing, raising taxes, more shuttered businesses, etc., etc.

samueltyler2 · 80-89, M

@Heartlander I totally agree, but what event will me allow the needed inspection?

ninalanyon · 61-69, T

@Heartlander

And where does the deconstructed kitchen go?

Here in Norway people often sell the old kitchen fitments, or give them away if you are willing to dismantle them.

ninalanyon · 61-69, T

I watched this as a child and was impressed then. This is the first time I have watched it since. Now that I am well grown I feel that I can properly appreciate it, much more so than at the age of 16 when i knew everything!

Clark's quiet, conversational style, is out of fashion now but for me it adds greater impact to what he says about slavery and the shocking conditions in the mills.

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