CRUNCHY (CONTINUED)

My earlier post on Rod Dreher's new book didn't seem to go down too well with the libertarian folks at Samizdata, a site I always enjoy visiting. I'm puzzled by the assumption that Dreher's ideas are the preserve of some privileged, urbanized clique of childess intellectuals. Just for the record, I spent most of my adult life in the London suburbs - and had a very pleasant time there - before moving out to a village-cum-dormitory town in the deeply unhip Home Counties where you can ogle Miss Marple-esque cottages while being run down by power-dressing housewives in their 4x4s. I have three kids (check the bags under my eyes.) and last ate in a McDonald's five days ago. I play five-a-side football on Fridays, and I have a friend who works in the industrial estate that's home to The Office. How suburban can you get?

On the other hand.... one of the points Dreher makes in his article (I haven't read the book yet) is that a certain form of homogenous suburban development ends up impoverishing our choices. I think that's true in a lot of cases. And it depresses me when people think aesthetics only matter if you have money. (I don't have any, by the way, which is why I'm still wondering how to pay my tax bill.) One last thing: modern life does great things for individuality, but it's not always so kind when it comes to parenting. The old family support networks have fragmented, but we haven't really worked out what to put in their place.

Enough speechifying. Dreher can defend himself over at the "Crunchy Con" blog that he's just launched. Lots of debate being generated already, I see.

Comments

[Johnathan Pearce]

Clive, well, as I was the fella at Samizdata who took a dim view at the Dreher reference, perhaps I should elaborate. An awful lot of articles taking a crack at suburbia are written by childless intellectuals who cannot imagine how anyone would want to live in them. There is a long history of this sort of critique. There is also a bit of a constant drone against shopping malls, etc. It is all terribly predictable.

If there is a lot of pent-up demand for the sort of "new urbanism" that this fella writes about, then hopefully there would be some sort of response, at least if the planning authorities allow it. And that of course is the kicker.