{"id":39550,"date":"2018-11-11T19:43:14","date_gmt":"2018-11-12T03:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/?p=39550"},"modified":"2018-11-13T06:33:27","modified_gmt":"2018-11-13T14:33:27","slug":"ideals-aspirations-and-advertising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/2018\/11\/11\/ideals-aspirations-and-advertising\/","title":{"rendered":"Ideals, aspirations, and advertising"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don’t indulge in the boxes of freebies the thrift store puts out; they’re usually loaded with junk. But Friday morning, a huge number of the freebies were … art books!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Oldish art books, but in good shape; once obviously some painter’s cherished possession. I grabbed seven or eight, and along with them the book on the right, 101 Classic Homes of the Twenties<\/em>, with floor plans and photographs.<\/p>\n

101 Classic Homes<\/em> is one of those marvelous books Dover does, where they find some quirky, usually artsy, material in the public domain and reprint it. In this case, it’s a plan book from 1925 from Elmira, New York, builder Harris, McHenry & Baker Co.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The houses themselves are pretty neat, ranging from Tudors and Colonials to Cape Cods and a few that prefigure the “modern” homes of the 1950s. Mostly there’s and lots of variations on American Craftsman<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What struck me, though, was the the brief descriptive copy with each house. I’ll let it speak for itself:<\/p>\n

A child seldom becomes a burden on society whose home life has been one of happiness and contentment. The home is the localized center from which initial impulses for good and evil go out. Those who select THE STONELEIGH as a home in which to purify the environment for their children may well pay the debt to humanity which all of us owe.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On THE CORNELL, a solidly suburban two-bedroom:<\/p>\n

True peace and enduring happiness are found only by those who unselfishly seek to develop the best in themselves and others. The most natural place for such growth and influence is the individual home where inner strength is constantly developed by conscious freedom, and fear is shut out and destroyed by a sacred purpose.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This house was named THE EUCLID:<\/p>\n

The education that counts in life’s competition is the education that elevates and enobles. The race for supremacy in the sensible pursuit of sane business is not won by the fleet-footed but by the strong. In private homes like THE EUCLID there is a chance for children to absorb the essentials of a sound, unselfish education.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now that was another big, substantial place and you can see the intellectual snob appeal. But most of the homes in the book had just two bedrooms. And even they had these grandiose, aspirational descriptions. Here’s one clearly marketed as a starter home:<\/p>\n

One of the greatest possible assets a man can plan and develop for the future safety of his wife and children is a home. If all men had the backbone and stamina to build for their family substantial homes similar to THE CLIFTON, charitable institutions and orphan asylums would soon go out of business for the lack of inmates.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I believe my favorite blurb was on a Shakespearean cottage that featured a library and a servant’s quarters with its own staircase:<\/p>\n

If those who occupy homes like THE STRATFORD are not happy, it is because they have violated some natural law, or are not conscious of the fact that happiness is a condition of the mind and comes as the result of the mastery of one’s moods. It is not a thing to be purchased at a price, but rather a fact to be recognized or accepted, regardless<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes. If you are not happy in your home it can only be because you’ve violated a law of nature or are too puerile to suck it up and rise above your troubles<\/em><\/strong><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

And THAT was considered appealing selling copy.<\/p>\n

—–<\/p>\n

Now, of course all this is just advertising, which is by definition pandering bulls*it. And there’s pandering aplenty here. These builders really knew which part of a couple was their real customer; there’s lots<\/em> of “maternal instinct,” “sacred hearth,” “the woman whose husband appreciates her,” “fairness to the woman who does her own housework,” and “earnest maternal longings.” But even the maternal longings are “… for better conditions for the culture and refinement of their children.”<\/p>\n

So yes, it’s BS. Who becomes a better person because his home has dignified columns or hers has an efficient kitchen? AND plenty of families back then were burdened with abuse, neglect, overwork, overdue bills, sibling rivalries, crappy education, and general familiarity breeding contempt, just like today. I doubt few of those 101 homes ever housed a saint or a paragon.<\/p>\n

But don’t you find the aspirations charming? And the whole idea was not just to live the good life (as defined by customs of the day), but to become better people, and raise your children to be better yet. To do that: practice self-mastery, value education, work hard, and expect the best.<\/p>\n

Can you imagine anyone making a popular appeal like that now? Even when you see ads for upscale products, they’re usually all about self-indulgence and appearances. Even “the highest quality” is positioned mostly as an attribute that makes buyers look smart. But most of Mssrs. Harris, McHenry & Baker’s audience was middle class or working class ready to move up. And they lured them with pitches not only about happiness and contentment, but duty and hard work and a desire to contribute to society.<\/p>\n

You made a pitch like that now, you’d have all of Twitter coming down on your head for sexism, racism, white privilege, and using “dog-whistle” words.<\/p>\n

—–<\/p>\n

When I was young, I was an idealist. Well, who isn’t<\/em> an idealist in adolescence? But later I came to see ideals mainly as the launching pad for hypocrisy.<\/p>\n

When I was older, I stood on principles like a rock. But older still, I see principles as things to measure against so we can be honest with ourselves when life compels (or entices) us to violate them.<\/p>\n

I’m imperfect. Let me make a wild guess that you are, too. And it often seems as if our degree of imperfection is in inverse proportion to our degree of high-falutinness.<\/p>\n

When I hear some mucky-muck going on about high ideals and aspirations, I find myself waiting for the sex scandal or the money swindle that’s soon to be revealed about said mucky-muck. When some neighbor or co-worker is holier-than-thou, I can be relatively sure he’s got a large and colorful collection of porn involving underage transvestites in bondage.<\/p>\n

It was also quite liberating to have been released from all those calls to betterment and duty. And, for us women, to be released from those paeans to our inborn domesticity and the chains they placed upon us. To hell with imposed duty! Down with clich\u00e9s! Take your social conformity and shove it! Yep, I was right in there for all of that. Still am. <\/p>\n

At the same time, though, it’s sad that society has such low standards for its individuals today. And worse, you can’t even call them low standards since there’s not much to measure them against. As long as you’ve got your smartphone and your selfie stick, who gives a damn about character, culture, education, and personal contributions? You can be as wicked or as haphazard or as aimless or as rude as you wish to be because there’s always a ready excuse at hand. You’re a victim! No one should expect more of you. <\/p>\n

Yes, there are still parents who aim for exactly the sort of betterment that was aspirational back there in 1925. Their names are frequently Patel, Wong, Yamamoto, or Goldstein; not so much Smith and Jones any more. And bless ’em; I’m glad we have the Patels and the Goldsteins and all. They, and the homeschooling and homesteading families who want both independence and betterment, are our best hope.<\/p>\n

But what happened to the regular Smiths and Joneses standing a little straighter as they aspired not only to do<\/em> better, but to be<\/em> better?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don’t indulge in the boxes of freebies the thrift store puts out; they’re usually loaded with junk. But Friday morning, a huge number of the freebies were … art books! Oldish art books, but in good shape; once obviously some painter’s cherished possession. I grabbed seven or eight, and along with them the book on the right, 101 Classic Homes of the Twenties, with floor plans and photographs. 101 Classic Homes is one of those marvelous books Dover does, where they find some quirky, usually artsy, material in the public domain and reprint it. In this case, it’s a…<\/p>\n

Continue readingIdeals, aspirations, and advertising<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4,14,18,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-and-aesthetics","category-books-and-movies","category-home-improvement","category-mind-and-spirit","category-money","ratio-natural","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39550"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39608,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39550\/revisions\/39608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}