I turned off Radio 4 today, as I was unwilling to listen to the contributions of people complaining that their property wasn't worth what they wanted it to be and that the government wasn't willing to help them.
People have not only bought into the notion that property will always acrue value, but have allowed themselves to be convinced that the economy will always grow, and that capitalism will always be to their advantage. It has become a belief that profit and credit are a right, and not a luxury or a stroke of luck.
This naivety is evident in attitudes towards the environment. In the Guardian, Juliette Jowit reports on how Britain is using Too Much Water. Like the economy, our natural resources are not only being taken for granted, but are seen to be part of a birthright.
The current recession is about punters discovering that there is a difference between having money (savings) and having access to money (credit). And tomorrow we're going to have the same problem with natural resources.
As long as we have access to water, ie: run the tap and out it comes on demand, we will all assume that it part of an entitlement.
Maybe it is possible to apply the lessons of the current recession to the environment, to prepare ourselves for the inevitable. Maybe we need to begin to address the recent past as a rare period of luxury, abundance and fleeting affluence, and begin to face the future realistically. Don't spend what you haven't got, basically.
I'm not talking about a dystopian future, but an enlightened one, where everybody get's off the fantasy bus and grows up.
Let's get real.
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