Correction

I wouldn't want to misrepresent Ms Clendinnen's views (see "On my Soapbox") so let me just say that the words "moral frugality" are hers but the ideas are mine.

Her actual words were:
People these days don’t know how to be poor. They haven’t learnt. It’s one of the advantages of being old…. I grew up in a world of what? Handed down clothes. Moral frugality. It was moral to be frugal. Therefore naturally I’m disturbed by the immense explosion of consumer goods and their distribution in all directions, and the assumption of children particularly who’ve grown up only in a period of increasing prosperity. That they have a moral right to possess them. To buy whatever mass produced piece of nonsense they need to express their individuality.

Now that seems to me to have a cascading number of consequences. One, it turns kids into the slaves of corrupt advertising agencies and immoral capitalism. But two, it sedates us from thinking through the origins of our security and prosperity.

Next time: my other favourite quotes about how to vote.

OOLF:Last night I managed to cook a dinner that everyone liked! Amazing