I was out birdwatching yesterday afternoon as the holiday drew to a close. Not wishing to venture far I went to Welney, a local reserve run by the Wetlands and Wildlife Trust.
I had never seen the car park so crowded. Wondering what the fuss was I asked a couple of birders whether there was something rare that had attracted the crowds. They assured me this was not the case.
The problem was compounded by much of the main site being under water, with my favourite (more remote) hides inaccessible as a result, so my wife and I set off to walk around what is called Lady Fen. This is a 5k walk around fields that are being rewilded into wetland.
Then we found the crowds. Hoards of late middle aged people and early retirees where standing around pointing what I guess to have been a collective half a million pounds worth of zoom lenses at a short eared owl, who is a regular in the field where they were all looking, hopefully. I'll be honest: I am sure it was there, but I missed it yesterday. People watching was almost as interesting.
Lugging their lenses, tripods and apparently necessary birding camouflage, most made it a few hundred metres into the walk. The brave did about 1k. And thereafter the crowd disappeared. Taking the longer route back, we had the place to ourselves for the last 30 odd minutes of daylight and were rewarded by roe deer, thousands of lapwing, a little egret and the most stunning barn owl, sweeping back and forth across a field for several minutes. It seemed aware of our existence, and appeared to check us occasionally, but otherwise continued its vole hunt. A stunning bird, that was missed by all the long lenses and seen only (at least at that time) through our binoculars.
Why note all this? Because it made me think, of course. First, the materialism of my generation struck me: the aim was to make the birds present their own by photographing them. Just looking was not enough.
Second, the lack of physical fitness was apparent, matched by the unwillingness to walk more than strictly necessary. I'm not the world's fittest or slimmest man, but I was definitely skewing the distribution that way yesterday. That was slightly scary.
Third, the herd instinct was as noticeable. Everyone went for the short eared owl that they'd hear about. Taking the risk that we might find nothing, and walking on anyway, the spectacle of the barn owl was ours to enjoy as a result.
Fourth, I recalled the data I noted here from the FT last week about voting trends. Most of those I saw were of my generation. Most were probably Tory voters as a result. That is especially true in the country. And most likely thought that their material well-being, expressed by the large number or newish cars and long lenses on view, required that they protect their status by voting that way.
And yet, this is the same generation now dropping dead in alarming numbers from heart related disease. They too are the ones waiting in A&E for hours and days if an ambulance gets them both that far and through the door.
It struck me that this lot should be angry. Instead I saw only the evidence of compliance, a lack of physical concern for their well-being, and a lack of curiosity.
That made me wonder whether this was why the government can still get away with neglecting the NHS? Is it that those most likely to need it think they're still OK in their material isolation, and lack the imagination to think the disaster of A&E could ever happen to them? Might they just be willing to believe the claims that this is all down to lazy, money-grabbing staff when so very obviously that is not true? And were they also just willing to cocoon themselves in the herd until the day when they found themselves outside it, when they too will become just a statistic to be denied, including by the mainstream media who are doing their best to dismiss well-founded claims of excess deaths this morning?
Of course I cannot know. I just observed, I admit. I did not ask. But what I did wonder is what is it that will get the message through to these people and make them angry? Haven't they already had enough of excess deaths, or are they willing to tolerate any number so long as they can still live with the pretence that they are not at risk?
I don't know the answers to those questions, but although I got the feeling there should be many angry people of my age out yesterday that was not the impression I got. Instead I felt that never has the compliance of a generation been so effectively and disastrously bought.
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I have no great knowledge of birds, or other wildlife and plants for that matter, but when I do get out I want to be ‘in it’ experiencing the whole thing not peering at one single item through a camera lens – and thats from someone who was once a keen photographer.
Thanks Richard for a coherent thought provoking blog.
I think that we as social primates have survived and multiplied through social coordination despite our physical weaknesses and vulnerabilities, and social coordination requires guides, rather than too much independent and individual thinking. Perhaps this is why we, in general, love the compelling narrative of fiction, rather than the uncomfortableness of uncertain science. So a hard wired tribalism coordinated by narrative has allowed major wars, often in the over-riding interests of higher status groups primarily. Of course if an individual tends to be uncomfortable with just following mainstream narrative, there has always been a role for the rebel, whether in science, politics, craft or religion – useful to society’s long term interest even if unconsciously so. Rebels, of course, also tend to ally themselves with smaller ‘tribal’ groupings and those rebels who don’t are often ineffective.
So, the ability to coordinate through following narrative, is frequently more important than being right, for social groups to be effective in surviving and achieving. Sad, to independent thinkers, but perhaps true.
So what is your theory of change, and how is it effected?
Thank-you for a fascinating and very pertinent observation, Richard.
It might be worth your while looking at the thinking of your fellow blogger Phil -Burton Cartledge at averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com , where, in his “All that is solid” blogs, he has expounded his considerable research into the composition and, crucially, the gradual decomposition of the Conservative vote, which last year produced his book “Falling Down – the Conservative Party and the decline of Tory Britain.
This year may turn out to be an interesting time as various spectres from the past continue to haunt the Tories and their supporters as all the pressure points of the economy, NHS, other public services and ongoing social breakdown continue to rumble and grow.
The Tories are clearly determined to demonstrate that the ancient Chinese curse which I alluded to above still has life and traction in it!
It’s good to learn that you were able to enjoy the cream of the day, yesterday.
I really should visit his site more often
Are the Tories falling down? I think so. But in that case where is the replacement party?
And this morning I feel fitter at work than I have for a long time – the break worked
Are the Tories falling down?
What happened in Normanby Recar and Cleveland?
https://twitter.com/ALDC/status/1606071576172015616
Did you notice the absence of UKIP? That explains that one
I seriously think we are seeing the death throes of the Tory Party as I scarcely know anyone under under my age (54) who supports them or admits it anyway. And whilst there are an awful lot of people over the age of 55 who will keep them going for a while the writing is very much on the wall. Unfortunately it looks as though Starmer’s Labour Party is determined to fill the gap in right wing politics.
Reflecting on what you have written, Richard; I’m unsure what has happened to my own generation who were undergraduates in the 1960s. Somewhere deep in the CIA’s archives is my picture, and as my mail was coincidentally ‘officially’ opened after attending a branch meeting of the local Communist Party, I guess that deep in The Registry of MI5 there is a note about me! We were the total pain-in-the-backside generation that took on authority, demonstrated, sat-in, chanted and … I sense for most, lost the plot and conformed, bar a few of us who got more radical as our bodies declined with maturity.
I appreciated your thoughts on observing both the people and natural landscape. When I was a city centre chaplain—a concrete landscape—I used to prop up a wall at one end of the High Street, look down, and watch for what was unusual or different—out of the ordinary—and make my way, with prayer, towards that situation. The dog collar usually made being present easy. I shared this with a police officer; she said, ‘That’s just about what we do!’ Politics seemed to have lost the gift of finding difference, of looking for the gaps, and speaking into them and then acting.
With every blessing, Richard, for the new year and with thanks for your voice!
Peter
Such a good idea – finding the gaps where the difference lies
Go well in 2023
Richard
People have given up, they don’t care any more. That’s the message I hear time and again on my travels as a jobbing plumber. Often people say “they are all as bad as each other” or “they’re all in it for themselves” Which lets face it is a message you see everywhere, all types of media are filled with stories of how bad politicians and their decisions are, and it has sunk in. The only person I used to regularly hear wasn’t the same as everybody else was Corbyn, and he was deemed unelectable.
So why wouldn’t people give up and get on with their lives as best they can?
Because we all have younger people we care for and for whom we have hopes
Or are you saying that the older generation has given such hopes up?
Yes. The compliance has been wrought by the inescapable psychological abuse tactic of Gaslighting.
Self harming and giving up are symptomatic of this #ParasiticViralTruthCancer and when triangulators like the BBC, who wield such gravitas are actively involved, the only way to shake everyone up enough to achieve the catharsis they need to recognise their damage, is to expose the full scale and power of this Asymmetrical information war on reality itself.
Yes, I have pondered this. I can understand the neglect of public transport or schools (although older people do use trains/buses and have grandchildren at school) but Health care?
We know that the bulk of health spending is on the old; we know that health insurance is unavailable or too expensive for virtually all old people (certainly the group you saw). This means that almost none of this generation can insulate themselves from a failing NHS. You are right – they really ought to be angry.
However, human beings are bad at numbers and good at self deception. Calling 999 is a rare event so the stories about long waits for ambulances and A&E care are something that happens to “other people”…. and can be safely ignored…. or so they think.
Anger is more often seen at GP services where most older folk are regular users of the service. But here, the anger is channelled where the Daily Mail tells them to channel it…… immigrants using the service, bureaucracy, scroungers that don’t look after their own health etc. Anything that does not challenge the fact that they choose the wrong government at the last (and previous, too) election.
Debating with these folk is always exhausting and usually futile….. but essential; otherwise the Daily Mail view will prevail.
I agree, essential
I also saw a group of heavy equipped bird watchers – on the Blackwater marshes. They managed to get a bit further – and didnt seem to see any rarities. I suppose if we tried to empathise, we might think this group, while fairly well-heeled, at least value the natural world – and we may try to sympathise with their need to tick off a short eared owl on their lists.
I do know left wing bird watchers in their seventies – there is hope yet. No owl would want to display for a supporter of this government.
🙂
I’m a leftwing birdwatcher in her 70s I think the article is a bit unfair.
I don’t get out much these days and when I do, I just go down the local cycletrack, which used to be a railway line taking coal to the Tyne. I’ve seen egrets along there, as well as small birds like goldcrests. I always have a camera with me, and when any of the other people walking the track ask me what I’ve seen, I tell them where and how long ago. Many of them are over 70 and they tell me what wildlife I can see that day. Quite often there are red kites over the track.
My son and his family were driving along a road near here and my 15 year old granddaughter saw a barn owl land on a fence post, so took a photo as they drove past. That resulted in the most beautiful Christmas card this year of a barn owl with feet out landing on a twig with winter berries on it, fir trees in the background.
She is going to be doing A level fine art next year after she gets her top grade in art this year. In 2021 she produced cards with a painting of a robin, again from a photo that she had taken, and sold them with proceeds going to a wildlife charity.
Are you actually suggesting that those over 70 shouldn’t be allowed out to take bird photos any more in case they get in your way?
As for those over 70 being too comfortable to complain any more, as you know I go on weownit.org.uk and many of those who share lunch and ideas on a Thursday lunchtime are over 70.
When I was 63 I had an aortic dissection, since when I have been warned not to even push a shopping trolley as it could cause another split in my aorta. I had another one last year age 72. If I have another one I doubt whether I’ll make it to hospital alive. So of course I am a keyboard warrior, which again is always said dismissively, as if people our age don’t matter. Some facebook groups suggest that the only way to fight this government is to get out on picket lines and catch covid again. People our age who went on strike in the 80s don’t count any more, but there are a lot of us about, and we are just as upset as you about the way this government is acting and the fact that Starmer has treated the labour party as his own particular fiefdom.
Sorry, making it personal again, but had to get it off my chest. A bit mixed up as well.
Happy New Year. So pleased you can go for long walks.
Did you actually talk to any of them and ask if they were members of a photography group? That’s what I would have done, donning mask first, of course.
JenW
I was aware of the risk I was taking publishing this – and that it might upset some.
That some, it is proving to be an exceptionally well read piece.
Please see my comments to PSR – much the same couple be said in reply to your comments.
I am not in any way condemning any birder or photographer. But I was shocked by the sheer lack of innovation. You clearly do not suffer that – and if your granddaughter is really going to be an artist she will not either.
My concern was the lack of original thinking and the sheer apparent compliance in the behaviour I saw. But I did not ask, and I did assume. But sometimes that seems appropriate.
Richard
Thanks for this refreshing and prescient post. It strikes me that, almost without thinking about it, you’ve reached the heart of the problem. The “older” (with apologies… having just turned 60 myself!) generation strike me as being like moths drawn to their own immolation. They have their perks (the cars, the houses, the ridiculous lenses) and are running around (well, walking a wee bit, anyway) trying to use their apparent wealth while they can. They have no regard for anyone except themselves. No regard for the consequences of their actions. No regard for the fundamentally empty nature of their lives.
What they do represent is the notion that it is right to be selfish. That Gordon Gecko was right.
Sadly, I have no answers to their nihilistic lifestyle. And while I hope for the future, I worry that those who follow will be swayed by the image of success and comfort the older generation appear to exemplify, and as such, will become those people themselves.
Finally, I have to praise you for this post. It is a beautiful price of writing. I would like your permission to use it with my Higher English class if possible. I think it would warrant being shared with those who will follow.
Lang may yer lum reek, as we Scots are want to say! (Trans: good health to you and yours).
I am genuinely flattered
It just fell off my finger tips without planning and very little editing
Feel free to use it
And thanks for sharing the other sentiments
You do write good prose……. but I guess you get a lot of practice!!
One of the sons once asked me how to become a good writer
I suggested two things. One was to have something to write about.
The second was to write all the time.
That was it.
Mr Winton is right, it was a very good piece.
“What they do represent is the notion that it is right to be selfish. That Gordon Gecko was right.”
Not quite I think; they dimiss Gecko, condescendingly as a brash American error. They think British exceptionalism somehow Trumps American exceptionalism. They do not understand how quickly the whole world has passed them by; leaving us all in an absurd Marx Brothers Freedonia presided over by a succession of comic, Saville Row, Rufus T Firefly PMs. This deeply unimpressive generation rationalise to nothing their own greed and superficiality; often covered by their faith that British humour is a self-depecrating and healing balm that them absolves from all sense of guilt, by claiming it proves they don’t take themselves too seriously.
Voting, however is a sacred matter, and so private that they have devised a carapace of immunity that ensures they need not ever have to face the incommensurable contradictions in their own fundamental beliefs, or explain them plausibly to anyone; least of all to themselves. They keep voting for duds, just like themsevels, every single time They are a lost generation, with more in common with 1930s Conservatism, I have always suspected, than even they realise……
I’m 62 and have never before been so angry about the state of the UK Government. I see quite clearly that my children are not g having the same opportunities as I had when I was their ages. Probably for the first time since WWII the generation(s) born since 1990 will be poorer than their parents. Quality of life in the UK has gone backwards and is regressing ever quicker as the Tories seem to be implementing a scorched earth policy. If they can’t steal it or plunder it then they are going to ensure that there is nothing left for anyone else.
Your post is so well observed. I get told to stop being Mr Angry and ranting about “stuff” when I try to point out how precariously we are living these days. One accident, one health failure and any one of us could be be waiting for the ambulance/waiting for the results of cancer tests/waiting for the life saving operation, yet my peers all go “Yes, you’re right…..but what’s the alternative?” And there’s the rub. Labour does not provide any real alternative to the Tories. There’s no party giving hope to voters in England. The SNP in Scotland succeeds (despite a patchy record over the last 10 years) simply because it’s not Labour and its not Tory.
The UK (England) needs a brand new party which has only one policy: To Reform the FPTP voting system. Getting enough decent people to stand on that single issue policy and implementing that change might restore hope and trust that politics can be made to work for the people. Especially if the “democracy” party also clearly indicated that it would call a GE when the change was made to scrap FPTP and not stand again. The ultimate single-issue campaign/party.
Until then “Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way…” (copyright Pink Floyd)
The last is so true
And it was (I think) the first album I ever bought
I agree that the complacency and conformity of the older age groups, millenials and older, is a problem ,but wasn’t it always thus? True, consumerist passivity is essential for propping up the existing economic and social order. Bombarded by constant advertising and a supine media has taken its toll. The Fenland RSPB birdwatchers are surprising for being so limited in their physical and intellectual capacities. To its credit the RSPB is good on climate change policy but sadly this is not reflected in any from of radicalism from it 3 million or so members. I was surprised when out walking along the Ridgway around Uffiington Castle and Waylands Smithy on Boxing Day the fitness and enegy of the walkers, but they seemed to be a younger demographic so there may be hope for the future. On the question of the lack of political will for progressive change I was struck when flicking through a book by the supposed leading US social theorist Francis Fukuyama in Waterstones recently, how lacking in any from of alternative thinking there is in his latest book Liberaralism and its Discontents. He acknowledges that his End Of History theory predicting of the end of any ideological differences after the collapse of the Soviet Union is unfounded, but he is lacking in any form of what could or should follow. When discussing alternatives to liberalism (really neoliberalism) he is rightly critical of Putin and Xi but discusses at some length right wing trends promoted by Trump, Brexit Bolsanaro, Erdogan and so on. No exploration of anything on the left even though he admits to the vast increase in inequality and the climate problem., He dismisses phenomena such as the anarchist tendencies in place like Seattle in the US the mass youth climate protests that could promote radical change. Perhaps as his book is praised by the New York times says it all………
I met him once at a dinner at the Brookings Institution in DC
I was unimpressed
Happy new year everyone.
There are times for compliance, for example for safety of yourself or others, or as part of the social contract – sticking to the speed limit, putting on your headlights at night, and lane discipline on the roads. Indeed, paying your taxes.
There are also times for disobedience, where rules are arbitrary or perverse or unnecessary (and there is a place for breaking rules as a form of protest, although anyone who does that should be prepared for the consequences).
It always amazes me how many people meekly amble round the tortuous maze at IKEA every time they visit. No doubt I am a contrarian, but I prefer to walk against the flow, and/or use the shortcuts to get to the area I need. Perhaps my education trained me to think for myself a little too much. Are schools, universities, social media, etc. vehicles for instilling conformity in the young as much as for encouraging creativity and expression?
The behaviour you mention – sticking to the paved, marked paths, and rarely waddling far from the heated/air conditioned vehicle in the car park – is exactly the sort of thing you see at US National Parks. Walk a km or two away and you are alone in the wilds.
I loathe the IKEA experience, not least for that reason.
And 2k always makes the difference. There’s a stretch of the River Cam we walk quite often that we might as well own for all the chance there is of meeting another person.
An interesting observation.
I consider myself an independent, analytical thinker. I enjoy the Ikea experience simply because it exposes me products that I may or may not be able to use to my own satisfaction. I am not being channeled by Ikea, I am there completely on my own terms.
The ability to be in a manipulative environment and yet not be manipulated is surely the essence of free thinking?
How do you know you are not manipulated?
Why did you go in the first place?
I first met someone making claims of the type you have at university. He said advertising had no influence on him. I (and other friends) fell out laughing. We knew no one more influenced.
https://theconversation.com/free-will-why-people-believe-in-it-even-when-they-think-theyre-being-manipulated-196316
I put this link up while being surrounded by Ikea furniture, which my grandchildren want to inherit when I die!
Andrew wrote: “The SNP in Scotland succeeds (despite a patchy record over the last 10 years) simply because it’s not Labour and its not Tory”. I think it’s a bit more than that: it’s surely the opportunity to be governed in Scotland by a party we Scots voted into power, instead of the perennial Westminster outcome of being governed by a party which the overwhelming bulk of us didn’t vote for and whose policies are anathema to us?
In the aftermath of Scottish Independence, in due time, another election would be held in which the Scots electorate can choose freely from the parties contesting and elect a government that reflects our choice – in other words democracy and that’s surely worth voting for?
Hmmm…………….this is an interesting one. I wonder how many of those with their expensive kit and cars got a university education for free whilst their grand children OTOH get saddled with debt!!?
One of my hobbies (other than playing guitar, walking, railways and economics) is photography (I got into it through trainspotting). It was initially 35mm but that has died a death and is far too expensive to pursue, and I considered myself to be a landscape photographer. I harboured a dream to publish my photo’s one day. So now I use an entry level Nikon digital DX camera and autofocus lenses which I funded by reluctantly selling my 35mm kit. I have a telephoto lens that lets me isolate bits of landscapes but it also has enough magnification to view birds and other wildlife through it.
Do you have binoculars? I don’t – the long lens gets me quite close. For me its about record keeping if I capture something. I’m usually drawn to light as well as subject matter. Digital is quite amazing – I remember walking in Dove Dale one day and spotting a Goldcrest in some bulrushes. I’d never seen one before and I got shot of it that I was able to enlarge it digitally. It was tiny but the picture enabled me appreciate the little bird even more. I recently missed a Kingfisher on a river in Ireland – the first I’d seen since the 1990s. You have to pinch yourself to check that you’ve actually seen one – I did not get a picture but I tried just so that I could share the experience with others albeit on a screen.
But, you don’t need a camera to remember or record. I still remember seeing my first Tree-creeper at Millers Dale with no camera – its in my head on replay as I watch it walk vertically up the trunk of an oak tree with its big feet. Now I spot them in my local park! Have you ever tried to get close to a Cuckoo? The one I saw singing away one fine May morning at Roseberry Topping atop the trees did not but my camera lens enabled me (unfortunately the result was blurred because the shutter speed was too low – bad technique caused by excitement).
Photography like lots of interests generates its own microcosm culture. The cost of a new digital body these days plus lenses is astronomical and you have to be rather well off to do it. You did not have to pay those sorts of prices for film cameras back in the day (although the ‘pro’ stuff was expensive). I gave up 35mm because by losing pay since 2010 it became too expensive. I miss my black and white film a lot. But it is heavily marketized isn’t it? And the sellers and magazines hook you in – I used to be on the websites looking at technique and product reviews and discussions etc., – been there, done that. And all that stopped when I my pay started to decline and I could not afford it. Even the camera I have now – a digital SLR is going to be superseded by mirrorless cameras if it has not already been superseded by a camera phone. I will use it until it breaks down and then who knows? Secondhand? Binoculars!? Obsolescence is built in – but many of those mechanically built film cameras will work for ever if you can afford the film!
As I get older, my worry is not being able to remember. It’s what drove me to take hundreds of photos of my kids as they were growing up as well as the locomotives I knew that were being withdrawn to be scrapped when I was trainspotting as a boy or taking pictures of beautiful places I’ve been to (inspired by railway books Richard!) . Having seen my pictures used to help members of my family who have suffered cognitive disorders I can testify to this. But I also cannot ignore how it is the oldest memories that cling on last in the victims of such cases and not in pictures.
All hobbies have a peculiar individualism to them and an aspect of self-realisation. From an existentialist point of view, by doing ‘stuff’ we add meaning and variety to our lives or just a means to escape the dread we feel about the things that are imposed unfairly upon us.
Some of the people you saw the other day could have been pros earning a living from their efforts, or just amateurs caught up in what they were doing. But many could have been trying to escape something in their own way. They might just feel hopeless Richard. When I discuss what I feel I know with people they always ask the same thing: How can you live knowing that? How can you put up with it? How angry are you? It’s too much to bear? They can’t deal with it many of them because they’ve been caught out or are just trying to survive.
But your materialism angle has a point.
Milan Kundera said that “The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting”.
Our society has seemed to have forgotten what it had because it has not been helped to remember. Instead, its been told that a lot of what we achieved socially was wrong, bad or unaffordable. And what we achieved has been undermined by under funding it and going back on promises. That’s because its not been as widely publicised as the latest Canon or Nikon DSLR or the latest SUV or holiday abroad or buying property. Markets – as well as being a knowledge/mis-information exchange system are also an attention grabbing system – taking us away from things we need as we are drawn to other things we don’t really need.
We have been ill-served by politics and the media in drawing our attention to this. What you saw at Welney the other day might be symptom of that. And its a symptom humans have had since Adam was a lad. Look at how Jesus was treated and misrepresented. It’s an age old problem Richard. It’s always about false alternatives and priorities – lies in other words.
Maybe those swarming around the short eared owl know this but just want seek comfort in it? Who knows? It’s the market’s reliance on enabling us achieve our dreams that needs to be broken – the substituting of reality with legitimacy through having ‘stuff’ and brands. I for one have never fell for this. I would call my materialistic side modest – but it never ever stopped me from asking the questions that led me to this place. But that’s just me.
Sooner or later – your generation – my generation – are going to die off and we’ll take our benefits with us. And then capitalism will have a huge problem. Where will the wages and debt free living (no education costs, better wages) that enables consumption in our generation to come from in future generations? Where will the pensions be? Savings? Stupid capitalism is heading toward a reckoning of sorts. And maybe more people can see this now?
Two songs (great tunes) from when we were younger summed it all up for me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ustXRPke9lM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnLFCY2vWoI
We were warned. All we can do is keep doing what Joseph Goebbels said funnily enough- keep repeating ourselves until it sinks in. And then our time has gone and someone else has to take over. Or not.
Your post deserved a response – it raised lots of interesting issues. This is my response such as it is. I was a member of CND in the 80’s. I wonder if my name is on some MI5 list somewhere?
PSR
I did not realise quite how much this post would resonate – and raise questions. I was worried, I admit, it would upset people. I readily see that I could be accused of a sense of superiority.
So, let’s be clear: I am not denying anyone their pleasure. Those people were birders and I presume they enjoy the pictures they take – although family and some trains apart I rarely reference pictures – and like you, I enjoy photography and have been doing it since the 70s, although I would digiscope these days if I was going to do birds (and I don’t).
But my point was not that – it was the herd instinct, and the lack of courage to go on to see if there might be something else. Overall, it was the absolute lack of risk taking. There were, quite simply, better pictures to be taken yesterday than of a distant short earned owl. I could have had many better ones I suspect in my garden this morning (a feeding frenzy of starling at one point) and a prohotgrapher like Carl Boris (look him up on Twitter – and his books are good) proves that. Also see the Old Man of Minsmere on Twitter – I like bird photography, but that was not what I was really writing about.
So, snap away. I will use my binoculars (Hawke 8×42, ten years old, and do just fine). But I guess my argument was all about being in the present, and seeing what is happening. The 800mm lens is a buffer from reality for most those I observed, I suspect.
Richard
This is my second reply – the other one was better but the screen just went off for some reason or other. You could have seen a bunch of yacht owners all going off sailing but you just happened to have been inspired to write by some photographers and photography is a passion of me and it got me thinking how I interacted with the market in photography that’s all. You did not make me feel bad. But a hobby is a hobby – it is a break from reality. Maybe that’s all these people were doing in their own way.
In a market economy with the current faulty and pernicious mode of capitalism we have , is anyone innocent? Is a hobby just a hobby anymore or are we all guilty by association because the market gives us the means to fulfill our passions and we, by interacting with it enable the market? I don’t know, but you got me thinking about it. The latest iteration of the 800mm lens you mention on a Nikon F mount is £18,999.00!! What that gets you is a competitive advantage in picture taking or some sort of status in your chosen herd. Whatever – the market provides!
Knowing what we know about markets and the internet, why would you expect people to be more inquisitive today? Hmm? I’m intrigued. Don’t you know that the market knows what we want and delivers to us day after day? We don’t even have to imagine what we want – it can be right there on the screen in front of you. Or, it can divert our attention away to a substitute.
As Clara Mattei depicts on p. 130 of her book, economics/money has been depoliticised. What we get as a society is ‘natural, subject to ‘natural laws’ the custodians of which – the economists in our Universities – reassure us that this is the way things are – go with the flow they say. Don’t question it.
They depoliticised economics by politicising first and saying it was ‘socialism’ when in fact government money was just the mechanics of how money really works. No wonder people in this country are discombobulated and find succour in other things – they have political system that does not listen to them and are sent from a disinterested government into the arms of the rapacious private sector on the basis of TINA. It’s a win-win for the market because THEY ARE the government too so it turns out.
Whether you accept it or not, we are in the grip of something evil – the cunning of unreason, the politics of partiality – the partiality of vested interests. Even Hardeep Matharu on Byeline TV before Christmas said that it was almost an impossible task to break through and hold up a light to the Neo-liberal fois gras shoved down our necks on a daily basis (Peter Jukes disagreed).
We’re virtually told what to do aren’t we? We’re told what we should be interested in (not blogs like yours BTW) – buying houses, selling family heirlooms for money, working hard, playing hard blah blah blah. That’s where the herd instinct is Richard unfortunately. Conformity. Not through communism or the Left wing. Through the market. What a triumph. What audacity.
But as we know, there is dissent. So just keep doing your blog or something similar if you want your blog or your ideas on the courageous state to break through. And I’ll keep clicking of course.
Thanks
There will be more from me on this…..
Interesting post, Richard.
But I think it was ever thus. I was lucky enough to live in Sheffield when in my 20s. One advantage was the glorious county of Derbyshire which was very easy to access, even by cheap local bus services. I was never a great walker, though walking 3 or 4 miles was part and parcel of a car less upbringing and not thought exceptional. An hour or so’s toddle round a nice bit of Derbyshire was never a problem. But I was always struck by the number of cars one would see at the roadside at some vantage point with people picnicking beside them, then packing up and going home. There was a statistic published in a local paper which went something along the lines of the majority of visitors to Derbyshire rarely went more than 25 yards from their cars… So this isn’t a new phenomenon.
I think that my generation was brought up to be stoical after what our parents went through in WW2 and the habit of stoicism persists. We congratulate ourselves on having lived through the 1970s (which really *wasn’t* that awful) and just endure what is happening now.
Having said that, I know many people, like me, who are horrified at the unbridled power of our current corrupt and uncaring government,who are desperately worried about the disintegration of our public services, but apart from ranting endlessly about it, signing petitions, supporting progressive media, contacting uninterested MPs and being involved with local efforts at mitigation, we feel powerless to stop the rot. Are we just a minority or have the horrors of the past few years touched more people than we really know about? Do we really know what a group of curious sightseers thinks?
(BTW Our local Ramblers group has lots of fit and active over 60s in it, some in their 80s, even.)
Thanks
In my 20s, in the 70s, we lived in Peterborough. My sons were taught to recognise birds by a very enthusiastic warden at Woodwalton Fen, not far from where Richard lives. If it wasn’t for him, I doubt they would still be members of the RSPB in their 50s. They wouldn’t have passed their knowledge on to their children, either.
That same warden reintroduced a butterfly to the fens, which had become extinct. That bred in all of us an interest in photographing butterflies and caterpillars, as well as birds.
At what age are we supposed to stop going out into the countryside and leave its delights for younger people to enjoy?
None of the people I still know from that time and place would ever dream of voting tory, by the way.
My birding enthusiasm was started by a teacher, aged 10
But I have never been as committed as my elder brother, whose life has been pretty much dedicated to birding in Suffolk
One son has caught the bug from me
A very interesting blog, which sparked some recognition in me – and then I remembered from where. Your description of those highly comfy looking and materialistic late middle age crowds are almost as exactly described by US travel writer Bill Bryson, but in his case referring to his fellow Americans. It seems we have now morphed into an exact replica of US society.
Bryson often describes portly Americans unable to walk further than a couple of hundred feet to their car; the ubiquitous “drive-thrus” (now numerous here too) where you’re often stuck in a queue of idling cars belching fumes for longer than it would have taken to get out, go in, order and receive your food; the horror he receives when he asks for directions, is told the destination is ‘shock’ half a mile away, and he walks! He notes American houses packed full of stuff, even poorer ones, but no one dares go to the doctor- and we can guess why.
A lot of Bryson’s stuff was published pre Tory 2010 election victory. He archly observes the foibles of his compatriots and peers in contrast to the more active British at that point in time. But we appear to have shifted closer than ever to how the US is turning out. Add in imported political culture wars stoked also by the Right, one is left shuddering.
Thanks
Thanks for this interesting blog post Richard!
I was very pleased to read your thoughts about watching birds v. photographing them! A few years ago, I was in Brazil on a work trip and decided to hire a guide to take me birding in the Atlantic rainforest over the weekend. He was clearly flabbergasted when I showed up just with my binoculars, but no camera. He clearly was struggling all weekend trying to figure out what the point of my kind of birding was. Which made me think a lot. I always had the feeling that the bird photographers may be driven more by the kind of motivation/urge that drives hunters, while I’m more of a contemplating birder, i.e. looking for the sublime/connecting with the universe when I’m out birding. I recently came across this wonderful paper, which resonates a lot with me: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11186-022-09494-0
Regarding your observations about people not being angry….I do wonder whether they are indeed not angry. The political climate in this country makes me feel that people are very much angry, but perhaps their anger is not directed at the right targets? Indeed, all the hatred of immigrants, unions, the woke, the EU, the North-London dwelling intellectual elite etc etc, that is so omnipresent in the right-wing press – including papers that I’m assuming the age and socio-economic group you are describing are reading – suggests that there is a lot of anger out there. What is strange in this country is that it does not seem to translate into much political change. Although, perhaps one could argue that the anger has led to the rise of UKIP and then changed the Tory party fundamentally, but of course that change does not mean people’s preferences are actually being translated into policies corresponding with their preferences (e.g. ‘Red Wall’ voters preference for ‘levelling up’). So, to me it is not so much an absence of anger or even the absence of expression of a preference for political change, but rather that the political system is so conservative that it kills off any impetus for change – however misguided it might be – and tends to demoralise and demobilise people? Not a coincidence, in my view, that the one major political change of recent years – Brexit – was sparked off by an ad hoc Referendum not regular Parliamentary politics.
I think it’s two things Richard. Firstly, people are confused about why the NHS is in trouble. This isn’t their fault; the media are doing little to nothing to explain what exactly is going on, and so people get weary of it; after a while they just want it to go away like any problem they can’t solve. Secondly, the mainstream political class has been captured. The top folk in Labour and the Tories went to the same schools, are members of the same clubs and lobby for the same companies, a vast number of which are private medical companies and pharmaceutials. People are picking up on that and don’t feel there are answers to be found with the big two. At some point there is going to be a re-alignment of British politics; it’s already happening in Scotland; but it’s going to take time. They will find their voice eventually though.
To quote Peter sellers “I am all right Jack” and another comedian I can’t remember “it’s my money”. If the Turkeys keep voting for Xmas, bring on the big day and get it over with. My sympathies are exhausted.
Having had the misfortune to interact with the NHS in very the festive period through emergency care and hospitalisation of a relative I understand completely your point.
And being reasonable politically savvy, very anti this government and female I honestly feel I have no voice. Non of the political parties are speaking for me, despite my regular email communication with them and I don’t know what more I can do…. It is not a comfortable place to be!
I hope you’re better now
I had an “observational moment” listening to a MoneyBox phone-in about pensions. Almost all the calls were from older people asking how to use their pension tax relief to pass on tax-free money to their grandchildren. Its wrong, isn’t it, to claim public subsidy for that purpose, at the expense of the less well off but there seemed to be a desperation and entitlement about it which I don’t really understand. Is it a lack of trust in fair opportunities for everyone, or maybe just their own needs blinding them to the benefits of sharing and taking pleasure in the wellbeing of the whole community? For the record, I am 70 but don’t have any grandchildren (yet?) but would certainly hope that if I do I won’t want to opt out of fair social taxation in such a way.
Thanks – and agreed
This illustrates the political value of “othering” where whole demographics are led to believe bad outcomes will only ever happen to others, not them personally. Consequently even when reality is staring them in the face they still can’t quite believe it.
I have experience similar feelings – my conclusion as a “baby boomer” graduate, now retired, is that we have had it far too good. Those with work place final salary pensions often have excessive income / assets relative to sensible requirements (unless / until major care home fees bite). Less favourable tax treatment of work place pensions balanced by higher pay in the years when setting up home & having a family make more sense, with full funded child care a good start. Not a welcome opinion among many in my generation – such is their sense of entitlement; as they wonder – is two holidays a year with long haul flights enough…..? Me inviting them to an XR demo is not a welcome idea
🙂
I am 66 and am more politically active than I have ever been. The shock at the stench of corruption and power seeking that I witnessed in local politics was an eye opener. I and my genuinely caring lefty friends were harassed and slandered during the purge. It left some of us, of all different ages, feeling hopeless. Some slunk away to lick their wounds. Others of us determined to continue the fight. Interestingly, my 2 well off aunts, in their 80s, are exactly what some have described: they have had all the benefits possible and are leading a comfortable lives, while taking in all the propaganda. When I challenge them : “But what about future generations?” they shrug and say they won’t be around to worry about it. Their selfish and ignorant attitudes astound me. I will keep on attending picket lines, demonstrating and supporting socialists as long as I have breath. By the way Richard, I can’t walk very far due to arthritis and I really miss my long walks with my dog, far from the madding crowd.
Understood
And thanks
Are you anywhere near London? Are you going to be part of this?
https://weownit.org.uk/557-deaths-too-many-action-page
I do my demonstrating online these days.
After I had my first aortic dissection a nurse told me I should go walking more and sent my details to the local walking group, with my permission, of course. The response was that they couldn’t accept me as a member because they wouldn’t know what to do if I had a dissection while I was walking with them. So I can have one when I am on my own, and would hope that if one of them passed me on the track they would know to ring 999.
That’s really quite shocking
Mind you, so too is the fact that the ambulance might not arrive
There may be hope Richard. No doubt you have seen reports of recent research by the FT that indicates millennials are no longer becoming more right wing as they age. I’m too old and jaded to conclude this spells death for the Tory Party but I live in hope.
Me too
I am a keen photographer, but I use small, lightweight cameras, and I would have followed your example in getting away from the crowds.
I see your photos on Mastodon
I agree with so many of the sentiments this post has attracted.
Coincidentally, this quote popped up in my f/b feed today and sums my current feelings rather well.
“I have become more radical in the last 5 years than in all my days at college, law school, and 41 years of practicing law. They say one gets more conservative as they grow older, and I say, not if you’re paying attention.”
Very good
I’m 74 and can readily identify with what you say in your blog; also with Jackie Hilton. We must engage people in conversation and challenge their unacceptable views. I’d also like to thank you for your regular blogs which keep me sane.
Thanks
Happy New year to all overly optomistic English folk.
I have just finished vacuuming the ground floor, the stairs the landing and the main bedroom.
What a fatuous waste of time and electrical energy.
I removed a few specs from the lounge carpet, quite a bit of ash from around the log burner, [Yes, who allowed that to be installed new in 2019?] a noticeable amount of detritus from the kitchen/diner, bugger all from the stairs and landing and copious amounts of fluff from the ensuite and bedroom. It will all be back again by tomorrow. What an absolute nonsense of an occupation for a thinking human being!
I want an act passed in parliament to establish the rights of dust and fluff!
Who does yours Richard while you are writing or walking?
I share the household duties
I am not dust obsessed though, I admit
Nearly every day at my local hospital there are 20 or more ambulances outside A&E unable to offload their patients because A&E can’t cope and the wards are all full. We – the hospital staff – have felt that the wheels have been coming off for years, but now the crisis is clear to see for anyone who will look. What can be done about it? Apart from blame it on the nurses or paramedics, or just shrug off the new normal?
Visitors to this blog will have plenty of good ideas, no doubt, but the rest of the population need to hear about the alternatives and the fact that it doesn’t have to be like this from the media and from the likes of the Labour Party – that is, those in public life whose job ought to be to challenge rather than perpetuate the dominant narrative. Alas, these are singularly failing to step up to the plate, to provide inspiration or hope. The way things are now in this country surely provide an open goal for a properly motivated political opposition. But what we have instead is a cowardice and apparent complacency that is hard to fathom, unless one believes that this is somehow what they want?
The only left-of-centre UK politician in recent years who might have a difference (however partial) was hounded away from having any chance of doing so precisely because many in positions of power – ‘friends’ and foes alike – preferred the awful status quo. In the face of their evident powerlessness, no wonder many ordinary people – those who are not totally consumed by the struggle to survive – cling to material goods or ways of life in which they find comfort or distraction. How bad do things have to get before we get out on the streets and demand change?
A thought provoking blog Richard – as frequent visitors to the Lake District we have often remarked what a short distance you have to go from the car park to be (relatively) alone on the fells – and it is not just the older folk who are cribbed, crabbed and confined by their lack of initiative or fitness – young children and their parents are also trapped!
I don’t know about birders as a group, and sometimes feel mild resentment at the assumption that older people are Tory supporters (I know you weren’t doing that Richard); on
a positive note, my wife and I, both in our 70s, are active members of a “Daytime” rowing club where the membership is almost exclusively over 60 (coached by an excellent young man who refers to us as his “care in the community” contribution). Most of the members are also actively engaged with other activities – food banks, ecology groups, community organisations etc and are predominantly left leaning (and loathing this government.). All is not doom and despair! (But still lots to get angry about!)
Thanks
You remind me I have nit been to the Lakes for years
What a fascinating thread!
My own take on it is that Blair was gifted a mandate for change (as per manifesto) in 1997, but so many voting for that change were unaware of the nature of the Beast, as most aspects of the manifesto were diluted, ignored or reversed promptly. The Blair machine overwhelmed the central party and most local branches, and that machine remains essentially in place today. This leaves a huge tranche of voters effectively without a voice, as Starmer eliminates the vestiges of real democracy within (levering placemen in, expelling any opposition, etc).
This leaves me, as so many writing above, ranting at the moon and being labelled “Mr Grumpy”. My wife, who left Labour before I did (over institutional misogyny) tells me it is best for my 71 year old self to let it go, as the nation is shafted.
I can’t do that
I doubt you can either
Could it be, that these wealthy old folks all have private healthcare?
This picture of mindless, complacent over-consumption mirrors my recent observations on three small, local beaches.
As a child and teenager of the 50s – early 70s, I spent most summer days on one of three beaches; my siblings, cousins, friends and I would take swimsuits, towels, sandwiches, snacks, magazines and books, sometimes, a small transistor radio. We always carried a warm jumper. With few exceptions, these items were all we needed; no doubt,rose-tinted spectacles are being worn now, but I remember those days as ones of fun, laughter, and contentment. We’d return home ready for the next day on the beach.
During the hot summer of 2022, I spent many days on these beaches. I was, and remain, astounded by how much ‘stuff’ people brought with them: tents, windbreaks, kayaks, canoes, paddleboards, body-boards, several cool boxes, fancy ‘beach blankets’ and ‘dry robes’, wetsuits, BBQ sets, lilos, inflatable chairs, huge umbrellas – this list is not exhaustive.
By the time some groups had carted everything down and set them up, the tide had necessitated a swift move, and it all started again. The most annoying pieces of kit were the large music systems some groups brought with them, which forced all other beach users to listen to their choice of very loud music. Worst of all, jet-skiers ruined the peace as they raced around the bay, which is home to dolphins.
Mindless, needless consumption powering the ‘handcart to hell’.
I so agree with all that
Why is all that cumber (lovely word, much used in my household) necessary?
What a great post, and super interesting comments. I used to live in Norfolk, and we frequently went to the coast to walk, and always a km or so in we would walk pretty much alone, and now at 73 and 78 we live in Galicia , often walk 5 – 15kms, and rarely see another soul, garden half an acre and pretty self sufficient in vegetables. The reason for saying this is one observation of mine of my cohort from school and uni is that they are all so Urban…. and so many have drifted rightwards whereas we are leftier and greener than ever. Yet we all were dancing in Hyde Park to Pink Floyd, 1960’s Love, Peace, we are all equal, pass the spliff, the New Age is coming etc blah blah blah. What happened? I see the urbanisation of life as the biggest detractor, apart from the vicious right wing press, from life as it could be lead in a more equal and decent society. I feel that life away from the coalface of life on the land has tended to increase materialism, increase a sense of alienation from meaningful values found in a non concrete environment, and perhaps that helps the Me Me Me sink in. And as one commentator pointed out Blair had the chance to turn his back on the Neoliberal attitudes, but instead embraced them and encouraged this slide into ruination. But I am still optimistic ! The so called millennials (according to a FT poll apparently) are actually becoming leftier as they age, and the Tories I believe are truly going down the plughole, fast – there is Hope.
There is hope
And you are right about materialism – I can’t say I live completely simply, but materialism is a curse
Excellent post ,which I will share widely.
Ruined by jibberish “Waiting for Godo” type thinking about politics.
“Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the wee Donkey!”, Don’t give up on thinking and problem solving just because you retire and wear a cardigan and long John’s when it gets chilly.
The Labour Party never understood “Limits to Growth” in 1972. Too uncomfortable no doubt. They have never been able to move on. Understandable perhaps because humans are tribal in nature.
But we face climate catastrophe, biodiversity collapse and a neo Liberal economic thinking that crushes all in its path (if we carry on letting it)..
Richards blogs are not here to ponder, they are here to put into action. Get campaigning for a fair and proportional voting system. Join the Green Party, door knock year round, listen to people (they appreciate being heard), like observing nature, its good for your mental health.
We’re a long time dead, and that tribe you joined…you don’t have to stay there.
Apologies for the late reply (a technical issues and then I’ve been out all day). As a fan of this blog and the discussions i hope this is constructive criticism.
Like Jenw I also go birdwatching and think you are conflating two things; birdwatchers with twitchers. Twitcher is a pejorative term for those who collect as many bird varieties as they can (needing photos for proof) in the same way that trainspotters seek to see all version of a loco type.
Secondly, I think you have brought some baggage (projected your views) to your observation of the group behaviour – we know from studies of crowds that they can be full of diverse people even though displaying some worrying behaviours – I don’t like football crowds in general because of this but even here the crowds can be very different – a family atmosphere in KC Stadium is a lot better than the hostility that one gets at Eland Road.
To come to your points
First, materialism – many young people are amazingly materialistic but haven’t built up a life times capital is all…
Second, lack of physical fitness – is common in all ages and there are no shortages shortages of veteran entrants for run in the park, pentathlon or marathons
Third, the herd instinct; reframe this – we are a social species with a high degree of altruism. We can tell a different collective story – but we have stopped making the case at a very basic level – Boris bigs up Peppa Pig – who on our side Biggs up bigs up e.g. Mondragon (4th largest industrial enterprise in Spain). What do we expect.
Fourth, voting trends – it isn’t so simple as older people vote Tory, in the Brexit vote that may be part of Basingstoke, but doesn’t work in Burnley or Stoke.
We all have baggage and its easy to project. As I approach 70 I remember hating what I called the 3 year socialists who were the leading lights in student politics and it sure is tempting to dismiss “my generation” – but I was one of the 8% of people from a working class background who made it to university in those days and had a considerable chip on my shoulder made deeper by being a so called 11 plus failure. The careers advisor who dismissed my efforts to go to university didn’t help. Point is many of the sell out politicians had privileged backgrounds and radical was a fashion statement.
What really happened was the end of the post war consensus, mass consumerism, the ending of proper farming as chemicals became more and more common (we were still taught about crop rotations as the 60’s text books hadn’t kept up), the end of quality manufacture (cheaper meant shoddier, but it could be replaced and is build so I as to make repair difficult), the idea of profit as the prime objective and the selling of this to everyone who came after. The Limits to Growth, Silent Spring and the Greens were fringe concerns at that time. Labour went along, the 45 government solved the big problems top down (yes slum clearance, but why destroy communities). Bribing people with council houses is easy when tenants have no say.
How round this up. Keep faith with the people, press for devolution and participatory democracy (we just about continue believe in juries) people can do it for themselves.
And in honour of the late, great Tony Benn whose 5 tests for democracy are splendid here are 5 tests or distinguishing a categorisation from a group;
What groups am I in?
How did I join them?
What does membership signify?
What say do I have?
How can I leave?
If someone put you in it and you cannot leave you are being categorised, the reverse is true, if you describe a group but the people in it are not there voluntarily (or don’t know) then you are categorising and not describing a group.
I do struggle with all this but if we are to build a different story, win arguments and get people on side for the changes we need, its important.
Apologies for not moderating this last night: I was just too tired
First, I knew all the risks in this past that you (and JenW) highlight. I am aware of the risk of generalisation, and yet w know there are also generalities that hold true. I seriously wondered whether I should actually post this after writing it. As it’s been one of my best read, and supported, posts fir some time I think I did the right thing.
Second, I challenge some of your assumptions. For example, physical deterioration in many people (not all) is chosen by simply not doing exercise as people get older. Most don’t do any of consequence. The evidence firmly supports that idea.
And third, to date people have drifted right as they get older: the evidence firmly supports that, until we get to the current 40 year olds and younger where the trend seems not to be happening.
I am not entirely wrong then. Nor was my overall point that materialism has lulled boomers into false security wrong, I think. They have a lot to answer for.
But thanks for your comment and interpretation.
A beautiful piece, Richard. Why are the young and middle aged so supine? It’s not just boomers like me. We all seem to live in silos these days. Most of my contacts outside the family seem to be with slightly lefty Quakerly singers who are quite active and radical. When one does have a meaningful conversation with someone from a different viewpoint it comes as quite a shock to discover that they have a totally different set of beliefs and that there is no basis for discussion.
For the boomer age group I think the role of the press is still important. Family members who read the Telegraph have their beliefs constantly reinforced and moulded by it (the country can’t afford to pay the nurses properly, GPs are lazy, tax cuts are necessary). For younger groups, social media may be more important. I of course read the Guardian, but I realise I am not immune to its agenda.
Thanks
Understand a little more, condemn a little less. Walk cheerfully over the earth answering to that of God in everyone.
That is not what George Fox did
Quakers are meant to be critical