The Guardian‘s Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett fondly remembers her childhood in a communal squat – an “Islington house furnished from skips” – and asks, “Are we too selfish to live like hippies?”
Imagine what you and your friends could do with a crowbar, a guitar, a few sacks of lentils…
The article in the Guardian is silly beyond belief. Utterly priceless was the very rough ride Rhiannon was getting from the readers in the Guardian comments.
Darn the modern concept of civilization that demonstrates that with a little hard work and effort one doesn’t have to live like you’re in a sewer and share your bed with rats. I wonder what would be the response of this so called reporter if told she has to give up what she has now and actually go back to living in her idealic squalor. It is nice how selective memories will allow you to remember only what you want to.
Ah, the ‘all mine is yours’ mutates to ‘all yours is mine’. Who’d a thunk it?
H
Ok but:
England back then was shithole, thanks to Labour. (The party these exact people voted for then, and now…)
And some fine music came out of the friendships made in these squats.
Which reminds me: this says a lot in a few words…
“When prolier than thou ex-public school boy [and foreign diplomat’s son] Joe was outed by the music press for living at Sebastian Conran’s palatial spread, he moved [back] into a squat. Ex-council flat kid [i.e., actual poor person] Mick was happy enough to spend his advance on a fuck-off rock star’s pad in Chelsea.”
http://is.gd/xtgUXL
Bigger question…are we stupid enough to choose to live like “hippies”?
LICE and BO….
Where do we sign up Elizabeth May?
Just for the sake of argument, let’s say there are enough resources in the world to live like this. (Accoring to the Singularity people, there will be, some day.)
I got to thinking: okay, then what? What do you DO all day? Play Dylan songs on the guitar? Have sex? Make macramé?
It would get really boring, and really old, very very fast.
In way too many words she could have just said, “Individuality bad, slavery good.”
Why do they invariably become, “artists”? Why not carpenters or welders or electricians, i.e. something useful? Is it because that would require real work and real productivity? Any time one of these dead beats tells me they want more government funding for the arts I tell them I would like more government funding for me to be a professional golfer. Now I’m a terrible golfer, and no one in their right mind would pay to watch me, unlike the pros, (unless it was to get a good laugh) but hey, if we should be paying mediocrities for their “art”, why on earth shouldn’t I be paid for my golf?