Saturday 4 September 2010

But until then...

Apologies for the light blogging. Next week, I'll be looking at a report showing that the smoking ban has had a very damaging effect on the pub trade, some new insanity about thirdhand smoke from that priceless old crank Georg Matt and the baffling desire of British drinks industry to go like lambs towards the temperance slaughter-house.

Getting to the bottom of all this will take some time. Until then, let me point you towards a discussion of sustainability from the always entertaining Counting Cats:

Essentially what “The Good Life” shows is “sustainable” living is only sustainable if it ponces off genuinely sustainable living. Tom and Barbara couldn’t manage without Jerry and Margot. Moreover it demonstrates that such poncing about is only really doable for the middle-class and higher (I wonder if Prince Chuckles reads this?) and that living “sustainably” is essentially living as a parasite. And fundamentally that is what I mean by true decadence.

I read an interview a bit back with Brian May, the guitarist from Queen, and he mentioned parties in the ’70s where dwarfs were employed to wonder around with saucers on their heads with cocaine for the guests. Just the right height for a snort you see. Now that could be seen as decadence but is it really? Queen got up to such stunts because they were enormously successful. I mean they were packing out stadia and shifting vinyl at industrial rates. That’s sustainable in the genuine sense and it isn’t decadence because real decadence is adopting a business model that doesn’t actually bring home the corn without government subsidy.

I have railed here and elsewhere about the theft of the word “liberal” from us but “sustainable” is another they have stolen from us. Let’s talk about sustainable business. Sustainable doesn’t mean poncing off genuinely profitable business in order to worship Gaia in a cack-handed manner.


5 comments:

jredheadgirl said...

No need to apologize Chris. Thanks for all of your hard work. Oh, and, YES, the term Liberal has been taken..um...stolen from us..as has the term..sustainable..

Bloody (if I can use that term..being an American) brilliant.

Keep it coming:-)

DaveA said...

Hi Chris, I hope you are well.

My paper should be published on Monday by the IEA on their blog on Monday suggesting 3 in 4 pub closures are down to the smoking ban.

Also I have read SCOTH from cover to cover and I think I might have them!

You may probably have this but just in case ASH in full BS mode from 2003.

"Official - smoking bans are good for business. ASH accuses hospitality industry of "crying wolf".

http://www.ash.org.uk/media-room/press-releases/smoking-bans-are-good-for-business-study-shows-hospitality-industry-fears-of-falls-in-trade-are-unfounded

Dick Puddlecote said...

Oh boy, that used cars study looks like it will be hilarious. :)

Anon1 said...

Here’s a link to Glantz’s 2001 visit to London, advocating that smoking bans are good for everyone.

http://85.18.251.150/10e/roadshow.htm 5/

Andrew said...

Well, if this is slow/light blogging, it's still at a good pace, and there's high signal to noise ratio.

And it wouldn't make sense to wonder if you should post a bunch of blog entries in a row because people might feel let down when you get back to normal. I'm sure you don't.

Just so you know we know.