The last temptation of Chris

This morning, for perhaps the last time, I walked to the top of Primrose Hill. I looked down upon London and asked: do I really want to leave all this?
Yes.
Non-natives don't live in London for the amenities; this doesn't make sense in cost-benefit terms. Instead, they do so to earn money, to "get on". But even those who succeed in this lose something more valuable than money - their freedom. One of the mistakes vulgar libertarians make is to believe that it's only the state that restricts freedom, when in fact we can be enchained by our own past deeds and character.
And many - maybe most - quite rich men are so enchained. Some are trapped by ex-wives or school fees, others by expensive tastes in cars, yachts, wine or drugs. And others are imprisoned by their own ego. Many want a top job not because they need the money, or because it's an enjoyable thing to do - it's generally not - but because the feeling that they have climbed to the top of the ladder gratifies their self-esteem; this is why politics and office politics are often so bitter - they are about character, not money.
In leaving London, I'm leaving all this and seeking - and expressing - freedom.
Of course, I'll still have to work. But in working from home, it'll be proper work, done for its own sake and not as a means to climb any ladder.
This is not a question of improving the "work-life balance". The very phrase captures one of the evils of capitalism - that work and life are opposites. Instead, it's about integrating work into life; in not having to travel into an office, I'm smashing one of the big dividing walls between the two, and moving towards the Marxian ideal of unalienated labour.
Which is another way of saying blogging will be light for the next few days, as I metamorphose from an urbane metropolitan liberal to a petty-minded provincial. My next post will, insha'Allah, be from Oakham.

Comments

[anthony]

Make sure you don't misplace your corkscrew in the move.

[ejh]

"Non-natives don't live in London for the amenities"

This strikes me as very obviously untrue. There are many reasons non-natives live in London (one of them, as it happens, is that many people who've lived in small towns and villages like the anonymity) but another is that there is a range of things to do and see in London that is simply unavailable on the same scale anywhere else. And you don't have to have lots of money to use and enjoy them.

You do, normally, have to have a fair amount of money to live in London, unless you want to live in lodgings and engage in the most horrid amount of commuting, these being reasons why this particular native of London left the place and now lives far away. But, you know, Ovid in Tomis. Sometimes.

[Luis Enrique]

good luck with the move!

I do wonder how you claim to know so much about the inner lives of all these people you describe, but there we go.

Calling life and work 'opposites' is just another way of saying most people don't enjoy their jobs. Are you so sure that's down to capitalism? What non-capitalist system, where job enjoyment is so much higher, do you have in mind? How much higher? And aren't there many things that can be done within capitalism to make work more enjoyable? How do you know the potential for change, in this regard, within capitalism isn't greater than that to be had from changing the system?

That's enough questions for now.

[robert r]

One of the few benefits of taking the capitalist shilling in a unfair and alienating workplace is you do get to meet, just very occasionally, some very interesting people.
While Chis is the one who got away, his old fellow inmates already miss his wit, laughter, enlightenment and bad language.
London 0 Oakham 1

[Glenn (aka angry economist)]

haha congrats! welcome to the shires! I loved living in London for 3 years, but as soon as my son was born I knew I had to get out of there. We were paying all the (high) costs and inconveniences; but without any of the benefits - we couldn't get out of the house to enjoy the place! all I did was walk around the same 2 parks with a pram for 10 months.

I lived in a decent part of West London, but it still doesn't compare to where I live now in terms of quality of life (Cambridge).

I think you need to be a multi-millionaire to have an acceptable quality of life in London.

And who wants to spend 10+ hrs a day working and commuting when one could spend at the most 9 hrs a day living in the provinces? that's an hour extra with my son a day. You can't put a price on that.

As for work/life balance - I say work to live, don't live to work.

Still - I miss the buzz of London. But its only 45 mins away from where I live.

[aje]

Good luck with the move Chris. I regret not meeting up more often.

[dearieme]

"it'll be proper work, done for its own sake": what is work that it has a sake? Larkin was right: the toad, work. Anyway, enjoy dancing the light fandango over the sugar beet fields.

[savonaraloa]

Trust all goes to plan with move and the settling in. Hope too that you are not surrounded by too many ex public schoolboys in your chosen location.
OT. I am pissed off with Wenger. Maybe its time for him to go. Ramos is type of manager needed.
Look forward to your erudite commentaries most of which are beyond my understanding.

[jameshigham]

I'm smashing one of the big dividing walls between the two, and moving towards the Marxian ideal of unalienated labour.

Best renounce the discredited Marxian ideal and join the Austrian School.

[Roger Thornhill]

The difference between our past deeds and character and the state is we may have had some control over the former, but not the latter.

The State can change the rules and demand more. Our deeds can be resolved by our actions and/or the consent of others. It is a bed we have often made for ourselves, if only by negligence or omission. The slate can often be wiped clean. The State, however, cannot be bargained with, cannot be reasoned with. It does not feel fear, or pity, or remorse and it absolutely will not stop oppressing you until you are dead.*

Good luck with your new life, Chris.

* Terminator quote, btw.

[Winchester whisperer]

Good luck!

[Chris Williams]

Fancy a pint in the Marquis some time? Your last train back is not so horribly late: me, I live in a city.

[Shuggy]

Hmmm - met a lot of people who, having grown tired of London, retreated to the shires. I always used to think, "Why not just move to a another city that's less fucked up than London?" Because most of them are. Still, good luck with that.

[Andrew Duffin]

Roger, the State may stop oppressing you when you're dead, but it sure as hell continues to oppress your surviving relatives on your behalf.

Chris, I think in fact you're just going to Oakham for the beer. It is, as you will know by now, some of the very best in England.

[Falco]

Good luck with the move, I will be leaving the big smoke soon myself. I do however have to take issue with this:

"One of the mistakes vulgar libertarians make is to believe that it's only the state that restricts freedom, when in fact we can be enchained by our own past deeds and character."

At the risk of sounding vulgar, however much you have bound yourself up in chains, it remains within your power to break them. When you are restricted by the state, you have no such option.

[John Freeland]

Lucky bastard! Good luck with it all and do enjoy your new home.

[kinglear]

Chris - I desperately need a fix of your insights!! Surely a week is long enough to move? Keep up the good work!

[Quenta]

Please link to this site.

http://business-information2.blogspot.com/

THANK YOU.

Quenta