The Feminine Mystique - Betty Friedan - Part 2

The Feminine Mystique - Betty Friedan

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 97

  April 7, 2017 

Book 31 - The Feminine Mystique
Betty Friedan (1997)
 Part 2 - pages 33-79
Reading Time - 1.5 hours

Sooo... the feminist movement got off to a good start in the early 1900s, all the way through the 1930s. Women went out and got careers and things were going good. But then... in the 1940s, something happened, women started retreating back to the housewife role. In the media and elsewhere, housewives were portrayed as fluffy, passive, feminine and gaily content. Editors didn't write "challenging" content for housewives because it would be beyond them. The true role of women was portrayed as being housewife and mother. Was it a backlash against the horribleness of war? That men and women wanted the comfort and security of family? Of a nice home with a flock of happy kids? The thing was... the role of women became so narrow... that it ended up being a mindless housewife. Women were encouraged to take on the role of the "noble" housewife. And if that wasn't found to be satisfying... then it was the issue of the woman. Despite the fact that in being a housewife, and focusing on her role as wife and mother, women were turning their backs on their minds.

Somewhere along the line, women and girls decided that home and hearth was where fulfillment lay and they were hell-bent on finding a husband and having as many kids as early as possible.

But... it wasn't everything that it cracked up to be. Friedan notes that in the 1950s there was a crisis in the identity of women. "Who am I?" was a question that haunted housewives across America. There was a certain safety and security in defaulting to housewife, mother and wife. Girls and women didn't have to face the terror that comes with the freedom to decide one's own life. The thing was... the issue didn't go away. It just came up again when women turned 40, when the kids were out of the house, and there was no possibility of birthing more.

Friedan notes that "our culture does not permit women to accept and gratify their basic need to grow and fulfill their potentialities as human beings, a need which is not solely defined by their sexual role". Boys and men face an identity crisis as they grow up... why not women? Because if that urge to grow is not fulfilled... but is repressed, it leads to some serious issues.

The Feminine Mystique - Betty Friedan - Part 1

The Feminine Mystique - Betty Friedan

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 96

  April 6, 2017 

Book 31 - The Feminine Mystique
Betty Friedan (1997)
 Part 1 - pages ix-xxxiv and pages 3-32
Reading Time - 1 hour

Alright, finally!! The book came in at the library and it is 400 pages of dense text. I'll do my best to get through it in a timely fashion. There is quite a bit of Foreword, Introduction, Prologue and Preface to work through. The book was originally published in 1963 so this version came out in 1997. It includes some more recent thoughts of Betty Friedan which mirror her other book that I read a couple of weeks ago. But this one is THE book that started it all.

Back in the 1950s, the American housewife was a dream image for a lot of women. Get married, have kids, buy a house in suburbia and live happily ever after. Some of these women were university educated, some were not. But the vision to which a lot of girls aspired was Mrs. Cleaver (Leave it to Beaver). At the same time... there was an unspoken problem. Housewives felt empty, incomplete, tired, angry, depressed. Some doctors called it Housewife Syndrome. In 1960, the problem burst and a lot of different things were blamed... women were over-educated. They needed to have more kids. But... the problem won't be solved by more money, bigger houses or a second car. In fact, those things might make it worse.

This book was written two years before I was born so I'm kind of curious to see what Betty Friedan writes. Will it still apply to me? I see echos of it though. People today are chasing happiness, hoping that bigger houses or a second car will make them happy... but that doesn't do it. Being a stay-at-home, work part-time from home, person... I handle a lot of the Domestic Resource Management issues... At the same time though, I am a writer and a blogger and I feel like I'm making a contribution to the world and growing myself. I am a housewife... but I'm more than that...

While housewives in the 1950s were wondering "Is this all?", I can't say that is my question... so we'll see where this book goes...

Enough is Enough - Rob Dietz and Dan O'Neill - Part 4

Enough is Enough -
Rob Dietz and Dan O'Neill

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 95

  April 5, 2017 

Book 30 - Enough is Enough - Building a Sustainable Economy in a World of Finite Resources
Rob Dietz and Dan O'Neill (2013)
 Part 4 - pages 156-206
Reading Time - 1 hour

If a steady-state economy is in the works, it means we'll have to alter our consumerist society that places emphasis on purchase, ownership and display of stuff. We've been sold ideas and visions of how good life could be, if only we had the latest toaster oven. We also live in a society where planned obsolescence (things need to be replaced sooner rather than later) rules. Maybe we could build things to last... Maybe we could share tools and stuff in community workshops. I, myself, think that the second hand culture (thrift stores, kijiji) is a step in the right direction.

Of course, none of this is possible without getting the media and politicians on board. Most aren't even aware that the steady-state economy idea exists... so education is probably in order. People generally don't like things that clash with their pre-existing worldview. It'd have to be framed in a way that people don't feel threatened. Thing is... most people (80% in the US) want environmental and social justice... we just need to demand it.

The big thing is... we'd have to do this at a global scale... cause at this point, we are all interconnected... living on one planet. What one country does with the climate affects every other nation. We'd all have to cooperate. I wonder though... maybe it requires a cultural shift... cause, in general, men aren't the best at cooperation. They're better at competition... and while that has gotten us to a certain point. Maybe it's time for women to step up... to create a global cooperative...

The authors have a blueprint for a steady-state economy but it can only be implemented in response to a cultural shift. And that's going to likely come from us... from people. We have to demand it.

I really enjoyed this book and would like to read it again, or read more books like it. It gives one hope for the future. The authors admit it would be challenging and difficult but... the rewards would be worth it. And I think we can all start in our own homes and yards... in our own small ways we can support organizations and systems that move in the direction of local economies... of limiting our consumption. Everything we do makes a difference... no matter how small and seemingly insignificant.

Enough is Enough - Rob Dietz and Dan O'Neill - Part 3

Enough is Enough -
Rob Dietz and Dan O'Neill

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 94

  April 4, 2017 

Book 30 - Enough is Enough - Building a Sustainable Economy in a World of Finite Resources
Rob Dietz and Dan O'Neill (2013)
 Part 3 - pages 112-155
Reading Time - 1 hour

Did you know Bhutan (tiny country squished up NE of India, above Bangladesh) doesn't measure Gross Domestic Product (GDP)? Rather, they measure Gross National Happiness. What a concept. They measure things like education, environmental health, community health etc. Cause there's more to life than just the economy. GDP just measures money changing hands... so someone's cancer treatment increases the GDP. Pollution clean-up increases the GDP. See the problem? Just cause the GDP is increasing doesn't mean all is well in the world.

For a stead-state economy, we'd need new indicators - maybe Genuine Progress Indicator or the Happy Planet Index (Canada is #89, Costa Rica is #1 and the US is #114).  The goal is a sustainable and equitable human being. Part of that is a meaningful line of work. Today, there are a lot of people out of work, and a lot of people who are overworked. Employers generally aren't flexible when it comes to part-time work, job sharing or leaves. At the same time, jobs that really need to get done (like environmental remediation) aren't deemed profitable, so they don't get done. A steady-state economy might have guaranteed jobs, maybe reducing hours, lower retirement age, increased vacation time, job sharing. Less time at work would mean more time for creative, fulfilling things.

Of course, we'd need to look at corporations as well... especially share-holder corporations whose sole-goal is to maximize profits for share-holders. Of the world's top 100 economies, 48 are corporations. But share-holder corporations get to extract all the value from the earth, while assuming none of the costs for the ecological and social damages. It's a broken system. There are other options... cooperatives, vehicle sharing, public interest companies, privately owned companies. Given how corporations buy votes in many countries, it won't be easy to wrest power away from them. Buckminster Fuller said "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." What a neat idea for revolution.

Enough is Enough - Rob Dietz and Dan O'Neill - Part 2

Enough is Enough -
Rob Dietz and Dan O'Neill

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 93

  April 3, 2017 

Book 30 - Enough is Enough - Building a Sustainable Economy in a World of Finite Resources
Rob Dietz and Dan O'Neill (2013)
 Part 2 - pages 59-111
Reading Time - 1 hour

Did you know that 1 in 10 households in the US (in 2007) rents a storage unit where they store stuff that they no longer need or want? Crazy, isn't it? We are consuming things (we are labeled consumers after all) at an ever increasing rate. The thing is, we are using things faster than the ecosystem can handle it... whether it's raw materials needed for products, or waste that is generated. What could we do instead? Well, we could create a tradeable system... for example... carbon emissions. Everyone gets a permit for so much carbon emissions and then those can be sold or traded.

But what about the whole steady-state population... that's a hot button topic if there ever was one. There's a neat rule of thumb out there that I've come across in financial blogs. If you want to know how fast something will double (money or people) do this:

70 divided by % of growth = # years to double - So 70 / 10% means my money will double in 10 years. But if we are at 7 billion people now... and the population is growing at 1% - then it will double in 100 years. Crazy. The simple facts are that the eco footprint of the global population is too large. We need a smaller footprint which means fewer feet. This is, naturally, a controversial topic. And China has tried the whole "limit people to one child" and run afoul of other issues. But one simple thing that could be done is education - cause educated girls have fewer children. We'd also need to balance immigration vs. fertility. Countries with low fertility could have increased immigration balanced by emigration. It would be tricky...

As for income inequality... well... read The Spirit Level book that I read a few blog posts ago. It's at the root of all sorts of societal issues, not just for poor people, but across the board. Egalitarian societies are simply better off and healthier. It would require taking from the obscenely rich (taxes, social programs) and redistributing the wealth so that everyone has enough...

And then there's our financial system. I read that Ben Hewitt book a few weeks back called Saved, so I had a heads up on some of this stuff. Basically financial systems and money are unhinged from real assets. We have this idea that money=wealth but it doesn't. Real wealth is land, housing, fertile soil, clean water, medical care, food - actual resources. Money is just a claim on real resources but... what if there is more money in the world than real resources? Compound interest means that money grows exponentially... but real wealth doesn't. The other interesting thing... which Hewitt noted as well is this... governments don't make money, banks make money. Banks need to have only 10% of real resources on hand. So they loan us $100,000 for a house but they only need $10,000 as a real resource. It's a shell game... they make money out of thin air. We go to work and pay them back the mortgage and that money is new money to the bank. It's a book-keeping trick and it's crazy. It is debt-based money creation and it drives economic growth. If banks stop lending... the whole system collapses - look at 2008 and the freak-outs that happened. The whole thing teetered on the edge of a cliff.

The steady state economy would require a different sort of monetary system. Maybe a debt-free national currency, along with a local currency and then an international currency. Maybe make banks 100% reserve, meaning if they want to lend $100,000, they need to have the $100,000 to lend! Thing is... banks aren't going to do this voluntarily and most citizens don't understand the system. Sooo... it'll probably be a crisis that will poke us over the edge.

Enough is Enough - Rob Dietz and Dan O'Neill - Part 1

Enough is Enough
- Rob Dietz and Dan O'Neill

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 92

  April 2, 2017 

Book 30 - Enough is Enough - Building a Sustainable Economy in a World of Finite Resources
Rob Dietz and Dan O'Neill (2013)
 Part 1 - pages 1-58
Reading Time - 1 hour

This is a book I could sink my teeth into! It's in line with a lot of the other books I've been reading on the environment and a sustainable economy. The authors put forward the idea that maybe we could create a world in which "enough" is sufficient for a good life rather than always "more".

Cause the thing is... never-ending economic growth is not feasible (despite what Mr. Koch of The 80/20 Principle suggests). We live on a finite planet and economic growth that benefits 1% of the population (the rich elites) but that passes the costs (environmental, social) down to the 99% of the rest of us... well... that just ain't what the world needs right now. The authors suggest that a steady-state economy might be the answer. And before you get all twitchy... it doesn't mean we live in the cold dark of a communist regime under a Politburo!

The economy (money) is a subset of the social economy (humans) which is in turn a subset of the biological economy (the world). We are growing the money economy to the detriment of the human and biological economy. We know this already... the climate, the extinctions, the poverty, the pollution, the debt. It's all there if we want to see it. But our culture (at least in the First World) tends to value owning and consuming, and that is no longer sustainable... but what if we could create a future where sustainable and equitable human well-being is the goal? That would be kind of cool. It might take a while to get there, but it would be neat.

Today, our eco-footprint is 1.5 Earths... that means we are growing our footprint bigger than the world we live in. There are ecological limits to economic growth. And the thing is... a growing GDP (Gross Domestic Product) doesn't make us happier or healthier. In an age where income inequality is growing and global production has not benefited the poor... we are going into debt, not just individually, but culturally and socially as well.

The thing with economic growth is that rich people tend to consume more than poor people. Which means their eco-footprint is higher. But all the poorer nations are wanting to follow in our footsteps and have economic growth as well. It's just that economic growth is exponential which means we are digger ourselves into a deep hole very, very quickly. Technology can help us up to a certain point but... it's tricky and never a sure thing.

No surprise but most economics courses don't even mention the idea of a steady-state economy. I'd never heard of the idea... mind you, I never took an economics course either. The steady-state economy would maintain a stable level of resource consumption and a stable population. The goal would be to get away from an increasing GDP and go to an increasing quality of life.

It would require a lot... a whole cultural shift... not just for nations, but globally as well. We'd need to rethink investment, ownership, productivity, environmental values, etc. But lots of studies are being done... and it looks workable. What it would look like... hard to say.

The North Water - Ian McGuire - Part 1

The North Water - Ian McGuire

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 91

  April 1, 2017 

Book 29 - The North Water
by Ian McGuire (2016)
 Part 1 - pages 1-272
Reading Time - 5 hours

I came across a review of this novel in a magazine in a doctor's office. It sounded interesting... violent, but interesting. So I got it from the library. I've read a fair bit of military fiction so am no stranger to violence but... this book took it to a whole new level.

The story of a whaling voyage that goes awry in the twilight days of Britain's whaling industry. This book has such scenes as:
pedophile rape, bashing heads of baby seals, drug abuse, killing whales, killing polar bears, tormenting orphaned polar bear cubs, murder, sodomy, prostitution, murder. The level of brutality is horrendous. Women play an infinitesimal role in here, basically as whores and sex objects. The author also seems to love using the "f-word" in the conversations of his characters. To me... it seemed out of place and out of time. I didn't really see how it added anything to the narrative (since the British have so many other swear words that would be more historically accurate) and for me, in fact, it was abruptly jarring. But what do I know... perhaps the "f-word" was a common swear word back in the day.

It's a well-written book but... it's gorily, brutally violent. Be warned.