Dark Age Ahead
Jane Jacobs, Random
House, 2004. pp241. $23.95
Aged
88 when this book was published, Jane Jacobs is certainly the grande
dame
of urbanism and it must be worrying for this book to be described on
the dust
jacket as ‘the crowning achievement’ of her career. While its title
sounds like
yet another millenarian offering – in the spirit of Sir Martin Rees’
‘Our Final
Century: Will The Human Race Survive the 21st Century?’ - it
proves
to be much more upbeat, engaging and intelligent than that, writes Austin Williams.
However,
while this
book has clear intent, each chapter portrays a hurried urgency and a
curious
lack of concentration, typical perhaps of a woman in touch with her own
mortality. As the structure collapses, the positive intent of the
‘cautionary
message’ suffers greatly. That said, it is a very rewarding read.
A Dark Age is the dead-end of culture.
Essentially, her premise is that cultures have tended historically to
die out
as a result of external forces invading and destroying the memories of
the
subjugated peoples or countries, whereas this is not the danger today.
Today,
more than at any time in history, Culture with a capital ‘C’ is in
danger of
imploding; of being destroyed from within.
This is a profound pronouncement, which leads Jacobs’ to
examine the five key pillars of culture that have become ‘ruined and
irrelevant’ and uses the book to explore why this has happened and what
can be
done to rescues them. These five pillars are: community and family;
education (specifically
higher education); scientific research; governmental patronage and
tax-raising;
and ‘self-policing by the learned professions.’ These five, she
suggests, are
central to the further breakdown in societal and personal values,
judgements
and integrity. From the effective denouement of the five pillars
springs
racism, delinquency, electoral abstentionism, envirocrime, etc.
Her chapter on the family that begins
with a healthy assertion that families, extended families and
communities are
essential socialising influences on children growing up turns into an
assault
on the car as the principle cause of community fragmentation. The
chapter on
Education has a very important thesis about the creeping
‘credentialising’ that
has resulted in education being seen as a route to a job rather than
valuable
in its own terms. ‘A degree,’ she says, ‘and an education are not
necessarily
synonymous.’ She links this cleverly with the paranoia of the Great
Depression
when financial and physical hardships affected the US employability
psyche, she
argues. The cult of the job expresses itself, for Jacobs, in a
situation where
‘even’ the threat of global warming is not seemed as much of ‘a threat
as job
loss.’ A rather anodyne conclusion to her primary concern. Rather than
situating the fall of decisiveness, a collapse of reason, a failure of
self-confidence in the specific historic moment symbolised by the death
of
ideological clarity, the end of progress and the culture of fear, etc,
Jacobs
prefers an ahistorical approach. In general though, her insightfulness
shines
through and she suggests that a cultural renaissance depends on
‘educated
peoples, and especially upon their critical capacities and depth of
understanding.’
Unfortunately,
because her critique lacks political depth, she often panders
unintentionally
to the prevailing reactionary moment – elevating the fear of
anti-social
behaviour, consumerism, business intentions, unaccountablity and
localism, for
example. However, her defence of critical thinking (in the true sense
of the
phrase) her demand for more scientific rigour and her belief in
judgemental
standards are refreshing rejoinders to the prevailing cultural
relativism.
The book is a positive contribution to
the debate about the future and one of only a few that tries to look at
the
essence of the societal malaise in its broadest terms. Obviously, there
is a
tautology at the heart of the book: the idea that culture collapses
because of
a cultural collapse. If the sub-editor and editor are unwilling to
criticise
the grande dame, I recommend that she exercise some of that
self-policing that
she advocates so well in the book. Hopefully, this is not the
culmination of
Jacobs’ life’s work, except perhaps with the current publisher.
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