Page 31 - Studio International - November 1974

malady bred of a glut of mindless consumerism. preoccupations of those who presume to Company propounded their solution to the
Scotland's hills are strewn with the disenchanted assume power, who presume to direct us and problems of the Highlands. It was standard
youth of America, on the run from prosperity. set out our objectives. We have apparently two Marxism; give the land back to the people. If
Their parents, who faithfully followed the choices: left and right. But anyone with half the people own the land, everything will be just
technocratic road to the advertising agency's an eye can see that they are identical in every fine. This is obviously nonsense. Who on earth
dream home, nurse their ulcers and their fatty important respect. Neither offers anything new; is creating our havoc, if it is not the people?
arteries, wondering desperately what went the two groups are merely engaged in an old- It is certainly not made by little green men
wrong. Why do the kids reject everything that fashioned struggle for power; a struggle which from Mars, after all. A basic fault of this type
Mom and Dad worked all their lives for? bores us, and which besides being irrelevant, is of revolutionary idea is that it presupposes, as
Japan became prosperous, and aped the ways dangerous because in it everything is sacrificed Theodore Roszak has pointed out, a politically
of western capitalism. All those things which to expediency. Jointly they lead the rabble on aware, cohesive, and disciplined mass known as
are supposed to be wrong with our British an hysterical orgy of plunder, approving and The Workers; who are at present in hiding but
economy have been just fine in Japan. Lots of encouraging their worst passions. who are ready to spring into action on a given
growth, a fine balance of payments surplus, The Russian experience of the past sixty signal. If all the land around the Cromarty Firth
plenty of factories, and plenty of jobs. And, years demonstrates what happens after a was split into small units, 90% would be
inevitably, massive and criminal pollution, an political revolution; the new party bosses slip available for development purposes if the price
overcrowded and stereotyped educational easily into the slots previously occupied by the was right. Very few people will resist a good
system which is unable to provide the youth of old ruling class, and the heavy backside of offer, whatever their views; they have been
the country with a chance to be truly original, bureaucracy continues to sit on the faces of the taught this reaction. They have been taught
inventive, and experimental in their studies; people, scarcely at all affected by the switch in greed.
and disintegrating family ethics which have power-holding. 'And the only way out of this circle is to
caused Japanese parents to lose the ability to 'In this country our left wing's ambitions are ascend to the next one. The consciousness of
care for their own children. An analysis of the just as transparent; politics are a career and the the world must be raised to the next level. And
achievements of postwar Japan, and an attempt ego wins over conscience. Recently the wife of indeed, whatever we do or say, this will happen.
to map the road that 107 million people are to a newly-made Labour peer was heard to remark, It is inevitable. It is the essence of true progress,
travel in the future, must surely take full with some satisfaction, 'And to think that my and it is the reason for our presence on this
cognizance of the ills and horrors that this parents said that I was marrying beneath me!' planet in the first place. We are everywhere;
society has brought about, as well as of the We have yet to see a government anywhere in but we are impatient. Sometimes, in black
traditional indexes of development that the world with a serious and practical plan for moments we wonder if the general change will
economists and politicians are more at home relieving obvious suffering and true poverty in come in time. It manifests itself most urgently
with. And here lies the crunch; our leadership other countries. We hear of butter mountains, in the most prosperous nations of the west,
has, time and again, shown itself to be hopelessly beef mountains, and grain surplus on the one because it is most urgently required there.
inadequate. It offers only shortsighted and hand; and on the other, devastating famines in Places where industrialism, materialism, and
irresponsible ideas. It holds us back, it drags us the third world. So far no politician has been consumerism have been weighed in the balance,
down. able to connect the two facts. Such an equation, and found wanting.
In 1912 the Russian poet Alexander Blok though obviously humane, is unthinkable in our 'It is more rare in Scotland. It has two main
wrote: distorted view of life. The measure of our real enemies. The first is insecurity, lack of
Night, street, a lamp, interest in the future is expressed in the scale of confidence, which makes people doubt the
A chemist's window our teachers' salaries. Here we see that the most truth even when it is plainly displayed to them.
A senseless and dim light. important investment we can make in the future When independence comes for Scotland, as it
No doubt in a quarter century or so is at the bottom of our list of priorities. We are inexorably will, and when Scotland ceases to be
There'll be no change. supposed to be creating a socialist world; and a second class partner to England, the Scotsman
There's no way out. yet our whole educational system is geared to will have more confidence in his own judgement.
You'll die, and just the same as ever capitalism, and students are equipped simply to That will help. But the greatest enemy of
Begin the dance again. A damp fuel the industrial machine. Our ideas as to change is fear. And fear is a foe which each
night. Ripples frozen on the river, what constitutes 'progress' are insane. For individual must face alone. For, though most
A chemist's shop, a street, a lamp. instance, recently someone on the radio people would like to step out onto the next and
No change. If there is no change, then we solemnly declared that villagers in the rural higher level of consciousness, they worry that it
might as well hurry on the holocaust, the areas of Iran would, thanks to progress, soon be might not bear their weight, that it might give
environmental collapse, and the mad slide into able to afford the 'luxury' of tinned food. way and allow them to plunge ignominiously
fascism. For if there is no change, then the Hitherto the poor creatures have been forced to back into the depths. To them, I would say that
holocaust will come. We have turned money exist only on fresh food which they grow the going up is worth the coming down. And
into an adjective, and we apply it to all things. themselves. And at the other end of the once you have been up, even if you come down,
We hear of £25,000 houses, £3,000,000 financial hierarchy, we have the pathetic sight you at least know for sure that the heights are
aeroplanes, and even f25,000 paintings. Price of rich and sophisticated Americans moving to there, and that one day you will scale them
is the first factor in the description of any the Rocky Mountains in search of the simple again, and make your home there. There is
object, from sublime sculpture to ridiculous life and the return to Nature; but they have nothing to lose, and there is nothing to fear.
refrigerators. 'He warmeth himself, and saith, forgotten all their skills; some do not even know 'But us, the impatient ones — what can we do
"Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire"; and the how to light a fire. What price central heating to help? There is one simple course, and that is
residue thereof he maketh a god ... He falleth when in New York an apartment which can to utilise the traditional one of propaganda.
down to it and worshippeth, and prayeth unto boast a real fireplace in every room is considered Already we see the power of the enemies'
it and saith, "Deliver me, for thou art my god' ". luxurious? What exactly are we playing at? propaganda faltering. Advertising is in decline.
[1] 'As a phase in the history of consciousness, Who recognizes a cage for what it is? How long To be in advertising is no longer considered
the building of an artificial environment may are we going to continue with our pathetic glamorous; it is thought at best pathetic, and at
best be understood as a deepening condition of attempt to salvage the promise of industrialism? worst devilish. It will fade away completely.
idolatry.' [2] Let us examine the leadership In their excellent production, The Cheviot, the Our propaganda will snuff it out. We do not
which we are offered; the style and the Stag, and the Black, Black Oil, the 784 Theatre have to make the same mistakes that America
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