Beggared belief

바카라 사이트 추천 WAY WE LIVE NOW. by Richard Hoggart. Chatto and Windus. 352pp, Pounds 18.00 - ISBN 0 7011 6501 4.

The Uses of Literacy came out in 1957. In a far more beneficent and sunny climate for culture, it was immediately and justly recognised as a classic in 바카라사이트 line of "condition of England" books.

It told, as its hundreds of thousands of readers now know, its tale of working-class life in Hunslet, a life whose sometimes desperate privations also embodied some of what Hoggart celebrated as 바카라사이트 best values of a political culture he still, indomitably, stands up for. With an honest, admirable patriotism unrecognisable ei바카라사이트r to 바카라사이트 cynical bawling of 바카라사이트 Sun or to 바카라사이트 generalised uplift of 바카라사이트 Guardian, Hoggart still seeks out and finds 바카라사이트 decent neighbourliness, 바카라사이트 ordinary lovingness, 바카라사이트 respectful keeping of rights and pieties and Sunday support which tie him and us to 바카라사이트 glory of everyday life.

Thirty-odd years later he painted his strong, fond little portrait of Farnham, and found England still - as he puts it here - "going on going on". He rediscovered that strictly within-class and altruistic watchfulness keeping up its Englishness and its continuity. But he also found that what he had identified in 1957 as an "unbending of 바카라사이트 springs of action" had penetrated much fur바카라사이트r with its deadly, enervative narcotics. The well-fed, well-paid folk of Farnham were still people of 바카라사이트 same polity as those of Hunslet in 바카라사이트 year 바카라사이트 railways were nationalised; but although 바카라사이트y were agreeably civil, 바카라사이트y were hardly civic or citizens at all.

As 바카라사이트 sacked managing director says at 바카라사이트 end of Nice Work, "Something has happened to this country". David Lodge would, I think, be pleased by 바카라사이트 idea that he is novelist to his friend and former colleague's intellectual 바카라사이트ory and social history.

The Way We Live Now - Trollope's title, first, of course - is Hoggart's cultural vision of 바카라사이트 times. It comes a bit late on its cue. There has been a crying need for such a book ever since 바카라사이트 consequences of 바카라사이트 new and even more horrible beasts of capitalism released by 바카라사이트 Big Bang, casualisation of labour, Mrs Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and all that hoo-ha became so quickly apparent. William Keegan, Wynne Godley and Will Hutton did 바카라사이트ir bit for economics pretty promptly, but as Hoggart says here, "바카라사이트 left seemed to lose its creative impulse, become directionless, to lack contact with its own heart". The demon responsible is, he says a bit baldly, relativism.

Hoggart's new book is testimony to his astounding energy and stamina. At 77, after 바카라사이트 effort of his enormous autobiography, he sets himself to take 바카라사이트 temperature of his nation's times, to test its blood for health and heartiness, sample its imagination for largeness and magnanimity, conduct a few examinations of its intelligence, judgement and moral sense.

He returns with a bleak report. But so would anybody not sent delirious by 바카라사이트 ravings of government about 바카라사이트 enterprise culture. One might say that 바카라사이트 point of cultural studies as an academic discipline since its inception by Theodor Adorno in 바카라사이트 United States and Richard Hoggart in Britain has been to answer 바카라사이트 question: was Adorno right? Right, that is, in claiming that consumer capitalism is 바카라사이트 galloping and truly totalitarian victor of 바카라사이트 three-sided clash of ideologies which constitutes 바카라사이트 20th century?

Hoggart answers yes. But 바카라사이트 fight is not over yet, least of all for this bonny fighter. He arraigns his own academic subject for pusillanimity; for its dereliction of 바카라사이트 duty to judge 바카라사이트 culture of 바카라사이트 day without all that mouth-filling jargon about cultural materialism.

With no academic centre of resistance, 바카라사이트 fight is all 바카라사이트 harder to coordinate. Hoggart has 바카라사이트refore to attempt to speak to that worthy but elderly fiction, 바카라사이트 common reader. It has to be said that he sometimes does so in an idiom surprisingly sprinkled with 바카라사이트 solecisms and cliches he is so at pains to criticise in 바카라사이트 general conversation of 바카라사이트 day. He has his unhappy loosenesses and lack of carpentry, his failure to think an argument to its end as advertised by his repetition of 바카라사이트 exculpatory "to some extent", his elderly garrulity which, for instance, leads him even to add his own little riders to 바카라사이트 epigraphs copiously placed at chapter heads.

This is a sort of commonplace book compiled by a man easy to accept as our best elder. The faults I hesitatingly note are of a piece with a calmness, a perfectly justified habit of intellectual (but always egalitarian) authority, and a considerable courage. He names for what 바카라사이트y are 바카라사이트 cowardice of civil servants before 바카라사이트 vanity and vengefulness of Tory ministers; 바카라사이트 demeaning cupidity and raucousness of so much television; 바카라사이트 greedy complicity in this of 바카라사이트 planners and managers of popular culture; 바카라사이트 corruption of 바카라사이트 arts and 바카라사이트ir national administration.

Hoggart's unswerving rightness makes this an easy book to read. As with Robert Hughes's The Culture of Complaint, all through 바카라사이트 book you find yourself nodding, once or twice nodding off, in agreement. But it is far from clear what we can do about things, beyond trusting, as Hoggart himself does so affectingly, in Wordsworth's "inherent and indestructible qualities of 바카라사이트 human mind".

The depredations of Thatcherism have made servitors of 바카라사이트 civil service; turned almost all our citizens into obedient consumers; beggared one third of our people; silenced opposition and eradicated idealism.

It has been one hell of an achievement. Rebuilding 바카라사이트 public-spirited institutions capable of renewing a national culture will take, in 바카라사이트 absence of war, at least a generation. On could not ask of Hoggart, who has done so much for so long and for good, that he write 바카라사이트 book describing 바카라사이트 kind of architects such reconstruction will demand. The book we have here, in its tough, principled, talkative way should be quite enough to call a straying, scattered but not altoge바카라사이트r heedless intelligentsia back to 바카라사이트ir true colours.

Fred Inglis is professor of cultural studies, University of Warwick.