We've come a long way, Baby - A moment of thanks to the Women's Movement

When you think about what life was like a generation ago, it is easy to imagine that people lived in simpler, happier times. And of course in many ways that is true. But while the media revel in nostalgia for old times and often curse today's celebrity-obsessed, consumer driven modern lifestyles. It is rare that we ever stop to take stock of how many good things have also happened since those "good old days".

So that is why I was delighted that BBC Women's Hour highlighted some outrageously sexist advertising that used to grace our newspapers without question back in the day. This festive advert illustrates the kind of thing I mean, but you can see the full display of 48 ads that wouldn't make it passed the advertising standards board these days at  http://owni.eu/2010/11/08/top-48-ads-that-would-never-be-allowed-today/.

Now, I'm not saying the battle for equality is won, but I am saying, maybe it is worth taking a moment to be grateful for some of the good things that we have achieved in the last fifty years. We've come a long way, Baby!

Not that I would ever say "I told you so"...

But... Vince Cable's indiscretion with two lovely young mums in his surgery (who just happened to be from the Daily Telegraph) illustrates my point about cognitive dissonance perfectly.

Vince is suffering so greatly with the psychological torture that is the coalition, that he just had to blurt it out to a friendly face. He is reported to have stated that ministers should be “putting a brake on proposals that are in danger of getting out of control" and he confessed that behind the scenes, the Tories and Liberal Democrats are fighting a “constant battle." Unfortunately for him he said this to journalists and now his reputation is in tatters.

The moral of this story: Compromising your true values will cost you dearly! 

Quote of the day

"Modern man fits his ethics around his profession, not his profession around his ethics"

Nassim Taleb

Why toeing the line can cost you your soul - an introduction to cognitive dissonance

Poor old Vince Cable. Gone are the days when he could boast a Facebook following that proudly stated "In Vince We Trust". Today's Vince looks decidely uncomfortable in his new governing position. 

Never was this more obvious than this week when he had to publicly state his voting intentions on the Coalition's plans for university tuition fees. As one of the authors of the Lib Dem manifesto, the government's new proposals will directly contradict his own personal beliefs, yet he is bound by convention to vote against his values in the interests of the Coalition. He is clearly facing a crisis of conscience over how to proceed.

I see this as a classic case of "cognitive dissonance", Leon Festinger's 1957 theory that human beings crave consistency in their beliefs. The theory goes that when something that you do jars with what you believe, this dissonance either forces you to alter how you behave or change what you believe. Cognitive dissonance is very painful and for Vince it means that very soon he will have to either rationalise his values to suit his new position or he will have to quit. Something's gotta give.

But it is not just politicians who face this challenge. Many working people at some point in their career have to park their beliefs in order to get a job done. And it is the repetitive suspension of core values that ultimately leads people to fundamentally change their beliefs over time. As Churchill once said: "If you are young and not liberal, then you have no heart; but if you are old and not conservative, then you have no brain." If this weren't a truism then there wouldn't be so many former hippies who now read the Daily Mail in Surbiton and vote Tory.

To fit into the mainstream and cover a mortgage and the weekly shop, liberal ideals often have to be left at the door. And if you're not careful, eventually they get abandoned altogether in favour of an easy life. Think about it for a second. How long could you do a job that goes against your very core belief system? I don't know... maybe being an arms dealer? You might think you would never do such a thing, but what if it was called a "product manager" in the defence sector? You might just cope by rationalising it and looking at the "bigger picture": the status; the pay; the commute; the benefits - until you no longer remember what you didn't like about it in the first place. Dilbert explains this with clarity in this strip:

So why is this important? For me cognitive dissonace is a key reason why people lose their connection to the natural environment. For example: you may hold the core value that biodiversity is precious and should be protected, you may even be a member of the RSPB or WWF, but to do your job you may inadvertently harm the environment through the materials you source or the waste that your organisation creates. It's not your fault, it's the company's - you're only doing your job. But you have to live with it and to do so, you have to shift your values or leave the company, or the cognitive dissonance will get too much. And this is how your work can sever the connections you hold as a human being to your values.

Just think of our Vinnie: to remain "loyal" to the governing body that he represents, he needs to toe the line and vote against his instincts. And in the process lose his soul.

There just might be another way. Perhaps there is. It's called tempered radicalism... But more on that another time.

Sustainability vs Survival: When the going gets tough do you still buy organic?

Even with this weeks bright news that we have an (austerity) royal wedding on the cards, the palpable sense of doom is still rife in the UK. In our house, that is probably something to do with the fact that my husband is Irish and horrified at the news that the IMF is going in to Ireland to take over the banking crisis. More broadly, my colleagues in the public sector are all considerably jittery about their jobs and the future is certainly looking uncertain. So what happens to a sustainable lifestyle when it is put under pressure?

According to a recent post om Amelia's magazine, the financial mess we're in ain’t going nowhere, but it could provide an opportunity to change our lives for the better. She gives a fierce account of what could be in store in http://www.ameliasmagazine.com/earth/transition-towns-conference-2010-the-automatic-earth-stoneleigh-lecture-on-the-financial-crisis/2010/08/06/. But in the end she is upbeat, saying: "We are living through exciting times of change. We cannot sustain our current pathological capitalist world economy so now is the perfect time to prove a more positive model of living and the folks involved sustainable initiatives around the world are perfectly placed to showcase these new ideas."

For me, I constantly struggle to find a balance between contributing to the mainstream economic system as it is and trying to live a greener life. Some things have become more 'green' in an age of austerity. For example, I am still not clothes shopping and my son still wears hand-me-downs; we still don't own a car and we grew a lot of vegetables this summer. The fact that international travel is so expensive will also probably mean that we forgo the long-haul this year in order to save money (despite pressure from far flung friends and family to visit!). But those things that require investment are also on the backburner: that loft insulation I've been meaning to put in; the organic farm delivery; the complete life overhaul that would make us more self-sufficient. The Good Life it ain't. Not yet anyway.

A sneak peak into a life without wings

I live in Southwest London, a leafy suburbish part of the world that just happens to be in the Heathrow flight path. Since the Icelandic volcano, an eerie calm has descended upon us. For a while we couldn't quite work out what it was - but then it dawned on us - 'twas the deafening silence of a world without planes.

While I know this aircraft lockdown has been a near tragedy for many (including my poor little sister who is currently stuck in Singapore), the plus side (along with the peace and quiet) is that it provides us with food for thought about what the world might be like without international air travel. The philosopher Alain de Botton was on the radio this morning imagining just that. In his view, a future world without aeroplanes might be as follows...

"Children would gather at the feet of old men, and hear extraordinary tales of a mythic time when vast and complicated machines the size of several houses used to take to the skies... Everything would, of course, go very slowly. It would take two days to reach Rome, a month before one finally sailed exultantly into Sydney harbour. And yet there would be benefits tied up in this languor. Those who had known the age of planes would recall the confusion they had felt upon arriving in Mumbai or Rio only hours after leaving home, their slight sickness and bewilderment lending credence to the old Arabic saying that the soul invariably travels at the speed of a camel."

This reminded me of a Middle Easern saying I once heard that goes: "My father rode a camel, I drive a car, my son flies a jet plane, his son will ride a camel".  Perhaps in a couple of generations time we may actually live in a new world like this. As mineral resources and fossil fuels dwindle, the idea of air travel in the distant future - say 2110 - may be completely ridiculous. We may by necessity return to a lifestyle that no longer depends on Kenyan beans in the shops, but rather stocks local produce; one that doesn't expect to be able to get to New York from London in an afternoon, but rather to take a week on a boat. As that great geezer Gandhi put it: "There is more to life than just increasing its speed." So maybe, unlike the current pace of things, the future might actually be slow.

Wouldn't that be nice.

Why car-free is care-free - in praise of the pedestrian lifestyle

In 2008 we gave up our car. It was a nice Prius too, so when we waved it goodbye it was a sad day. But nearly two years on and I can honestly say that the car-free life is the only way for me.

Today is a beautiful sunny day in London and we are off for the weekend to a friend's house in the countryside. We have a 12-year old and 2 year old in tow and we need to get two trains and a rural (ie. two a day) bus. But this is no lament, I am really looking forward to it. Apart from the schlepping the buggy up the stairs at the train station, everything else in this journey is an adventure. 12-year old can play with her dad's i-phone and read a pile of magazines that her online life at home prevents her from getting round to, 2-year old can look out the window and shout "moo moo, horsey and doggie" to his heart's content and dad can read the paper. And the bus ride will be the best bit - a chatty two year old will on average make five new friends on every bus ride. Of all the commuter modes there are (car included), the bus is the most friendly. People sometimes smile at you. Old ladies chat to you. You can see the driver (unlike the tube and train). It can be a bit skanky sometimes, but generally, the bus is best.

I have been without a car for practically the whole of my son's life and I have never felt limited by it - in fact we've probably taken more trips into town than my car-bound friends who would find parking impossible, so prefer to stay in the suburbs for fear of the dreaded parking warden.

And that is my biggest problem with the car - the stress. If you look at car advertising you would think that a car brings freedom, safety and speed, but the reality of car-life it is more like fear, danger and fines. Here are some cases in point:

Fear:
A good friend of mine came to visit last week with her two kids. Some idiot kids chose her car to break into and smashed her window. She had to drive home on the motorway with a binliner over the gaping window with two small children screaming in the back. She then had to get it fixed which costs a fair whack because if she claimed on insurance she loses her no claims bonus. The whole event left us feeling like the city was a fearsome and miserable place (which in truth, it's not)

Danger:
Far from being the safest mode of transport, the car is the most likely method of road transportation in which you will have a fatal accident. Horrid point - but true.

Fines:
This is where I have found the most relief now that I no longer have a car. In London there are so many ways you can end up paying fines. If you forget that you drove a little too far down Hammersmith Road, you get fined for not paying the congestion charge. If you drive in a bus lane and are caught on camera you get a £50 fine. If you park anywhere in London in the middle of the day and forget to pay your ticket or get back late to your car, a parking attendant will hunt you down on a motorbike and charge you £60, and if you go a teensy weensy bit over 30 miles an hour on the approach to the A13, you get done for speeding. Yes all these things did happen to me when I was a car-user. No wonder I was such a stress case.

So car-free is the way for me. I know it can't work for everyone - rural life generally requires private transport, but I feel that if you live in the city, it really is not a loss to go without. And of course, it is generally better for the environment, but you're probably tired of me banging on about that, so I'll stop there!