Race To Walton Mountain

In the aftermath of the Crash of '08, and the uncertain future left in its wake (and towards which we are hurtling), it is clear that those people who were successful in the world that ended with the Crash are coming to the panicked realization that we might not be needing them anymore. So, their pontifications  and projections have filled the air as they try to hold on to a world they feel slipping from their grasp. 

Along with hedge fund managers and ponzi-runners, one job I suspect we will need less of is that of the affectless "post-modern" novelist, especially those who satirize consumer society while simultaneously growing wealthy off of it. Someone like, say Douglas Coupland, for whom, I suspect, the last few months have been a bit ... disconcerting. 

Copeland is not going down without a fight and is damning fate with an essay entitled "Back on Walton’s Mountain". The basic idea seems to be that we are going to be going back to the simpler life of our pre-consumer history as represented by "The Waltons", and that we may be economically and culturally unprepared for such a switch.  Perhaps. But, uh, Doug? You do realize that "The Waltons" was a TV show, right? I know you made your reputation off of cute pop cultural references raised to the level of high literary art, but there comes a time when these can be no substitute for real life. And, Doug, I don't know you, but I am willing to bet that you would be unable to handle a real life version of "The Waltons" inasmuch as that would involve a lot of physical labor for low reward and the possibility that you may not be able to discuss the finer points of Smiths lyrics with nose-ringed co-eds 

The truth is that most folks are not precious little writers, and are quite capable of cutting their budgets and lowering their standards of living. Most folks do it as a matter of course. In effect, they have had to over the last 10+ years as the real estate and college loan bubbles have squeezed out their ability to save much. The sub-prime meltdown was not caused by the family man driving a 10 year old sedan pinching his pennies. It was, among many other things, the result of a toxic combination of people with too much education and $$ getting rich selling investments to people with too little of either. But, Coupland seems to think the earnest striver should be conflated with the gardner buying a Hummer house on a beer budget and the Walls Street jerk trying to decide which house to visit on the weekend. Sorry, but that is flat wrong. The "simple" America is still  out there; it has never gone away. But, you can't find it in San Francisco, New York, or on the Internet. You've got to go to flyover country, or a church, or the Army, or high school football team, or ... you get the idea.

Coupland at least recognizes (somewhat) the limits of our "new" simplicity, even touching on the paradox of thrift whereby increased savings, which is "good," can actually depress the economy by removing $$ from circulation, which is "bad." But, does Coupland understand what it means to "save" or to "spend?" My grandparents raised a family during the Great Depression. THEY knew how to save, and the tiny house in Anaheim that they lived in for over 50 years was testimony to that. Coupland, meanwhile, is wondering what will happen if 10% of Americans stop eating out. 

Coupland is ultimately like a lot of our professional nags, decrying consumerism, even as they become rich and famous off of the $$ paid to them by bobos who love to hear them decry their consumerist lifestyles. And yet, Coupland undoubtedly lives in a fashionable neighborhood in a house filled with the gadgets, art, books, CD's, and other ephemera. Coupland is welcome to noisily yearn for a simpler life on Walton Mountain, but his tone suggests an echo-purely unintended I'm sure-of the Augutinian prayer "but not yet."