←back to thread

I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

(samj.substack.com)
395 points url | 4 comments | 26 Apr 25 00:30 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
Show context
jdietrich ◴[26 Apr 25 03:50 UTC] No.43800782[source]▶
Twenty years ago, I think there was still a sense that we were collectively laughing with each other about the dullness of small towns. We all had the same shops - Woolworths, Dixons, Our Price, BHS. We all had a leisure centre that looked like everyone else's leisure centre. Some towns were better off than others, some towns had parts that you were better off avoiding after dark, but the majority of towns belonged to the same broad spectrum of bland mediocrity.

Today, I think it's clear who would be being laughed at by whom. The fates of places have so radically diverged that we no longer have a sense of collective identity. All of the places listed in Crap Towns are now unrecognisable, for better or worse. Those familiar shops are now gone; in some places they have been replaced by artisan bakeries and pop-up boutiques, while in others they have been replaced by charity shops or nothing at all. Half the leisure centres have shut and we all know which half.

The upper middle class might have become more humourless and puritanical, but I think that's a subconscious self-defence mechanism, a manifestation of noblesse oblige without real obligation. The working class are too angry to laugh and certainly aren't willing to be laughed at. We all know that we're teetering on the brink of a populist wave, but no-one in a position of power seems willing or able to do anything about it.

replies(15): >>43800919 #>>43800937 #>>43800971 #>>43801102 #>>43801155 #>>43801453 #>>43801591 #>>43801875 #>>43802160 #>>43804316 #>>43804445 #>>43805995 #>>43806112 #>>43806115 #>>43806135 #
1. zmgsabst ◴[26 Apr 25 04:34 UTC] No.43800971[source]▶
I’d argue that your last paragraph has the cause-and-effect reversed:

We’re entering into a populist phase because the managerial class is incapable of addressing the problems experienced by most people — so they’re going to try dismantling the current elite systems and rebuilding them. To say that the problem is elites inability to suppress populism is to miss that the elites own chronic failures is what caused the populist surge.

Similar to populist waves circa 1900, where aristocratic systems were replaced with managerialism via populist revolts. Now, managerialism has failed so we’re again seeing the stirrings of change. At a broad scale, communism, fascism, and progressivism were all different technocratic managerial solutions to the problems and excesses of the late 1800s and early 1900s.

I think it’ll be interesting to see what comes next.

replies(1): >>43801108 #
2. ffsm8 ◴[26 Apr 25 05:09 UTC] No.43801108[source]▶
The only issue is that - in the past - weapons had to be wielded by people. The same working people that revolted.

There is very strong evidence that this will not be the case by the time this wave you have imagined gets really rolling.

I hope it does not happen for decades yet, because frankly: I cannot see the working class (of which I am part of) win that conflict.

replies(2): >>43801172 #>>43802143 #
3. zmgsabst ◴[26 Apr 25 05:30 UTC] No.43801172[source]▶
Currently, weapons and logistics are not automated to that extent; I don’t think it’s meaningful to guess about decades from now, given the current flux.

I’d argue that your perspective means that the time to revolt is now (ie, next few years) — while the technical and social systems are in mutual flux and before a new regime solidifies. A regime that might be more autocratic totalitarian in nature (as you suggest will be the case).

People will reasonably come to different conclusions.

4. graemep ◴[26 Apr 25 09:31 UTC] No.43802143[source]▶
Change does not have to be violent, let alone be a violent internal conflict.

I think between the rise of China, America's reaction to it, and the general shift in economic power to Asia from the west, and the lack of trust in government in the west, things will change.