The end of the world as we know it, or cultural renaissance? You decide.

The paradox between the economic disaster of the 1930s-40s and the flowering of cultural achievement in that era has been often commented upon. We get writers like Henry Miller, Ernest Hemingway, Zora Neale Hurston, TS Elliot, ee cummings, Langston Hughes, etc... And artistic movements from documentary realism to expressionism and surrealism. Not to mention the music, this was the golden age of Jazz/swing and the first time marginal genres like folk and country received much wider appreciation. And the same goes for Hollywood and theater in general. How did so much artistic creation rise out of the wide-spread poverty and despair of the first great depression?

There are many answers to that question. For example, there were WPA programs like the Federal Theater Project that funded local theater groups. There was no TV, so people were more likely to get out of their houses in search for entertainment. And 1933 saw the end of prohibition, making night clubs and dance halls possible.  

Beyond the misery produced by such economic downturns, there are other less negative effects as well. When business is slow, or non-existent, people may have more time on their hands. More time to think and create and/or more time to appreciate music, art, theater and writing--the former may also be encouraged by economic imperative, the latter motivated by a desire to escape the confines of their situation. 

Today, our cable TV and the internet are a mixed blessing. These are relatively inexpensive sources of endless entertainment, which can be a good thing when you are too broke to go out. But they are also easy, habit-forming options for unimaginative, and this could wind up being a detriment to the growth of our cultural resources, and a drag on the recovery of the economy as a whole.  But, who knows, perhaps folks will take their economic stimulus (in the form of paycheck tax reductions) and go buy a book, see a theater production or a band--supporting the artistic rebirth of the early millennium, an historical event that our great grandchildren will point to as evidence of our collective cultural sophistication and elan.  

Community Gardens

I was listening to This American Life the other day and they were playing recorded interviews conducted by that ethnographer of the common man: Studs Turkle. These recordings were of people recalling Depression Era America and how they coped and what they experienced. I was struck by one lady who said something along the lines of "Well, we lived in the country, so food wasn't a problem for us..." Most of our impressions of the 1930s are of soup lines, children selling apples for a nickle and long lines of men queuing to interview for a few available jobs--all in an urban setting. Except for the Okies heading out of the dust bowl for California, we really have little idea of how rural folks experienced the depression. Provided that you could pay the mortgage, farmers probably avoided many of the deprivations that were rampant in the cities. Unfortunately for us today, the US population (largely rural in the 1930s) has ballooned in urban areas, making basic food security an issue should the economic crisis wreak havoc on our food systems (a situation that is altogether likely in the case of either inflation or deflation--and it is clear that we're going to get one or the other).

To hedge against the worst possible outcomes of this crisis (i.e. food scarcity), we should look to the "victory garden" movement in the 1940s. People from all over America rallied during World War Two and planted millions of vegetable gardens to ensure food security for the US and its troops overseas. As budgets get tight, job losses mount and unemployment grows, we will need surplus food in every locale. The government may or may put out the call for all red-blooded citizens to take up the hoe and begin sowing the seeds of our future recovery. Regardless, we should be look ahead toward a dark couple of years and act in our own collective interests.

We would be wise to begin a similar movement today to have arrangements ready for planting in spring 2009. Backyard gardens are a good idea for those who have a backyard. For the millions of apartment dwellers in the US, and those of us who have really tiny backyards, community gardens could serve to bolster household food production and slash grocery bills while creating an opportunity to connect with other people in the area. So, start a community garden today and look forward to a bountiful 2009. The American Community Garden Association is a very good organization that promotes the creation of community gardens at http://www.communitygarden.org/. Their website has tutorials on all the steps involved in organizing a community garden. Also check out http://www.revivevictorygarden.org/ for good tips on how to optimize your yard or patio space for household gardens.

A little darker now....

The Dow falls 678 points today. People are looking for the bottom and hoping for a quick recovery--I hope they find it and we do turn it around sooner rather than later. But things being what they are, the collapse may continue to surpass our expectations. There is some consensus that this economic event is not the same as the 1929 crash--this assertion is being used to mollify panicked investors; but, what is not being discussed is that today, unlike during the great depression, we are globally connected with many other ailing national economies. This may be a global race to the bottom as the world's major economies pull one another down. The friction between failing national economies may begin to play out on a larger scale than the current situation between England and Iceland. England wants to sue Icelandic banks that folded and took millions of pounds of British savings with them. Now that they have to keep themselves afloat, what happens when China starts cashing in all of the treasury bonds that they have been buying to keep the US in cash during our overdrawn Bush years? It's all a big question mark at this point, but it could get ugly. What is plain is that currently we are not experiencing the brunt of the crisis in terms of a dropping dollar and rising prices. I always thought my grandparents were a little odd for doing things like stashing canned goods under their beds, or patching worn out sweaters, or making so many things from scratch. Their frugality was born of some rough times during the Great Depression.

There is no way to tell if we will be compelled to make the same kinds of sacrifices as my grandparents, but now would be a good time to start thinking about that space beneath your own bed. Should food shortages occur, you would want to have a full pantry to offset periods of scarcity. It's a little extreme, but the Mormons supposedly store a year's worth of food for just such emergencies. There is a calculator that counts up the pounds of food you need for a year's supply-- http://lds.about.com/library/bl/faq/blcalculator.htm --this is something to start thinking about now, when stores are posting great sales to thin their stock in anticipation for lower sales next year. Dried goods and canned goods are ideal for long storage. Here's a link about the shelf life of different foods: http://standeyo.com/News_Files/Food/Extend_Shelf_Life.html