The Uniform

Saturday night. I’m in a pub with friends. The figure opposite me is adorned with The Uniform. Checked shirt, beard (optional), Buddy Holly/’Art house’ glasses. My companion writes plays for a living and I know that he is intelligent and rational, yet he appears obliviously comfortable in his ironic uniform.

Before I go any further I should acknowledge that I am of course a hypocrit. There are few acts worse than judging people by their appearance and usually I pride myself on doing this less than most. The thing that bothers me is this; why are so many ‘creative’ people so keen to follow trends and demonstrate a complete lack of independent thought? I just don’t understand it. I understand what I call ‘football shirt syndrome’, the comfort and perhaps identity to be found in the unity that shared attire affords but generally I don’t think that is the case here. I suppose it’s all about image, image presented and image perceived. Only, I don’t even see an image, merely a cloned example.

Specialisation

It seems to me that as a generation we harbour a huge portion of people that are working in ‘unskilled’ or unspecialised jobs. A great deal of this number are intelligent, sometimes highly educated, people.

It leads me to think about Buckminster Fuller and his thoughts on specialization and how, as others have mentioned before, as humans our core quality when compared to other animals is that we don’t specialize. Most, if not all, animals are equipped with ‘built-in’ specialist tools to aid them in their own particular habitat where as we create tools for ourselves allowing us to adapt to different environments and situations.

Could it be that we are becoming less inclined to specialize in a certain trade? What are the implications of this? We still depend on specialists to help us with certain aspects of our lives. Is it just a matter of excess population and a low percentage of specialists required? Maybe it is a sign of impatience or an unwillingness to commit to a single walk of life... Food for thought anyway.

The Presence of Giants

We are all aware of the ever-increasing dominance of chain stores on our high streets, the ominously encroaching blandness. I recently went back to a town that for a long time I called home and there experienced the disappointment of seeing the rather harrowing sight of a familiar little independent shop having been replaced by another all too familiar chain store. There were several cases in this particular market town that have arisen since last I was there (the most prominent victim for me being a reasonably sized book shop) and I must admit that I was surprised by the strength of the feeling of loss.

You might expect the mixed-period architecture to be unaffected but I could swear it is unhappy. I get the distinct impression of something that has had its guts blown out and a mask pinned across its face presenting a big smile. If you listen carefully you can almost hear the muffled mumblings of objection.

The shops that do survive are often the less useful ones, particularly in a town like this. The antiquey type places, the variety that tourists love. Tourists that will come and poke around, maybe buy the odd nik-nak, then go and have coffee at Pret. The danger is, quite frankly, Glastonbury: A beautiful town in one of the most beautiful parts of the country, not to mention an essay in itself. If you want to buy a crystal you need only walk a couple of yards in any direction but if you want to buy food or a hammer and nails you must go and bow before the big supermarkets and DIY stores on the edge of town. Whilst tourists are a useful, in some cases essential, source of income for the local economy it seems a bit of a waste if they feed the giants. Perhaps local shop-keepers should use that in their windows; “Please do not feed the giants”.