One of the strangest experiences of my life so far has been observing the town where I grew up slowly decay and crumble away. What was once a boisterous place with a functional economy, constant community activity, and just generally clean, become a near ghost town of awfully constructed apartment buildings, closed stores and broken pavement, and rising crime rates, has been one of the most disheartening experiences of all. I don't live there anymore, but if I did I can't imagine putting up with the destruction it went through. The place I grew up no longer exists. In its place is a modernist monster that has devoured all in its wake.
I'm sure others have similar experiences where they live. It is no longer uncommon to see formerly stable towns and neighborhoods absolutely wrecked by those in charge who refuse to do anything to fix it. That's just the way things are now.
However, nothing is being "progressed" towards. Everything is merely being allowed to die. You are truly seeing modernity go out with a whimper before your eyes. What the end state will truly look like is anyone's guess, but it will most definitely not be an improvement on what has existed before.
As the 20th century continues to finally die out, we are very quickly learning how little we have to replace any of what is rotting away. Times are changing, yes, but we have no direction as to what they are changing into, and as a result are losing nonnegotiable elements in a functional society that are being treated as disposable and suffering the consequences for doing so. It is remarkable how backwards we are acting while this occurs, as if the only version of reality we know is portrayed by overwritten and poorly paced early 2000s single camera sitcoms. We couldn't call it Clown World if the term didn't have some foot in reality.
One of the aims of the book Y Signal was to try and explore just what that something was that we carelessly let die long ago that we are missing now. It was as if it was there one moment and gone the next and everyone knows it but refuses to speak on the subject. Where did that world go? How did it disappear overnight? What have we replaced that old meaning and purpose we once had with in today's modern world? It has to be more than factory belt products and corporate brands not being updated to teach Modern Values our betters get to decide for us, so what is it? What is it about community that we do not understand anymore?
Where does it come from, and where did it go? If you recognize that reference, then you might remember a time when said shared culture existed. Today you would be lucky to meet five people in a row on the street that would not only all know any radio "hits" today, but you would also be hard-pressed to find anyone that will look you in the eye as you spoke to them. That is, if they answered at all. What happened to lead us down this road?
A long time ago, there was a book called Bowling Alone, written nearly a quarter century ago in the year 2000 by Robert Putnam. Not only that, the original piece said work was based on was written around Cultural Ground Zero in the year 1995AD. The book was prophetic about many things we should have seen coming, but did not. For those who want a quick description as to what the work is about, you can find it below.
"Once we bowled in leagues, usually after work -- but no longer. This seemingly small phenomenon symbolizes a significant social change that Robert Putnam has identified in this brilliant volume, Bowling Alone, which The Economist hailed as "a prodigious achievement."
"Drawing on vast new data that reveal Americans' changing behavior, Putnam shows how we have become increasingly disconnected from one another and how social structures -- whether they be PTA, church, or political parties -- have disintegrated. Until the publication of this groundbreaking work, no one had so deftly diagnosed the harm that these broken bonds have wreaked on our physical and civic health, nor had anyone exalted their fundamental power in creating a society that is happy, healthy, and safe.
"Like defining works from the past, such as The Lonely Crowd and The Affluent Society, and like the works of C. Wright Mills and Betty Friedan, Putnam's Bowling Alone has identified a central crisis at the heart of our society and suggests what we can do."
Remember, this book was written 23 years ago from the date of this post, and just about everything this work said would happen, did. Not only that, but it has only gotten worse over time to the point that all those who praised its assessment on the cover would now decry any of the obvious solutions our revival efforts offered (especially any involving religion) and would proudly keep insisting on heading down the road to destruction instead. In essence, we have decayed for too much to even consider another path other than the doomed one we insist on now. We have taught ourselves to choose destruction and insist on calling it progress. For that, we have earned what we have today.
Our industries are run by people who hate the people who buy their wares. Our jobs are run by people who see their employees as disposable cogs that can be discarded for more profit. Our politics are run by politicians who hate the people they are supposed to represent. Our churches are run by New Age nihilists who ignore God's Eternal Truth for the newest fashions and fads that people who hate them prescribe. Everything is now the polar opposite of what it should be, and as a result people are more miserable than they've ever been before.
For much of the younger generation, this is what they think is normal. It is alarming how quickly they have been conditioned to think that living in rot is acceptable. They've been taught to think that the way things are now is normal and that every era of history is Just As Bad as this one which means misery should be ignored. Meanwhile the older crowd who know better refuse to actually know better, instead attempting to garner a seat at the cool kids table as opposed to being the adults they should be. What this does is give the younger generations a false impression of reality, contributing to the rising mental health crisis and the spike in suicides over the despair and hopelessness we champion so highly as Progress. We need to stop lying to the younger generations instead of playing pretend at getting some childish utopia that will come if we just put the Good Guys in charge.
The fact is, the 1990s were a better world. The 1980s were a better world. The 1970s were a better world. Were they perfect? That isn't the claim being made. If your first thought is to point out their flaws, then congrats, you have fallen into the trap of excusing modern times that have no right to be excused. History is not an endless misery mire: there are ups and downs. Periods that are better than others, and eras that are not. Any era that treasures social cohesion and the sanctity of personhood and rejects radical individualism and alienation is objectively better for the people living in it. A famous musician once said that it is only due to being a member of a strong society that he can even play pretend at rebelling against it with his music. Once everyone is a rebel, no one is: they're just atomized themselves into islands. Much like the climate we have today.
As for Bowling Alone, in the 20th anniversary edition Mr. Putnam went over the changes since the book was first published in his new preface. It is just below:
The outdated coping mechanism of assuming things are either always terrible or climbing up a hill to some shining utopia are both objectively incorrect views of existence. History doesn't work that way, and it never has. The fact of the matter is that you are living in a cultural low after exiting a cultural high. Unless that obvious fact is accepted, the problems of the current low will never properly be addressed, never mind fixed. We will only become trapped here longer.
So what does Gympie, Australia have to do with the subject at hand? Is it not just another modern town like any other out there today? Well, the subject here is the "Town That Refused to Die" for a good reason, perhaps related to its above origins that still live on in spirit today. Nonetheless, in recent years Gympie has attempted to make some moves that others, especially in the West, could learn from.
But surely there are those today who have realized this issue exists in the first place? More than just one man writing an article back in 1995 must be aware of the problem and are attempting to fix the broken landscape our leaders refuse to address. There simply has to be someone somewhere who is willing to not let cultural decay win.
As a matter of fact, there are some examples of such a thing. One of the more interesting ones is in the form of a small town in Australia named Gympie.
The town of Gympie was established way back in 1867 as a gold rush site originally named Nashville after the found James Nash. To this day it still has a Gold Rush Festival that celebrates how Mr. Nash might have saved the Queensland area from total economic depression when things were at their worst. The town grew over the years, as most of them tend to do, to become one like most in the developed world of the 20th century. I don't think you need to guess what it looks like now. For a long time they developed just like everyone else did.
Regardless, you can see a photo below.
The NZ Herald from New Zealand (of all places), reported on this story back in 2017. You can find the archive here. The age of the article is not an issue as to today's subject: all the places mentioned in said article are still around today, proving the point of including it here.
The reason I bring this up is because of how the internet age has absolutely devastated the last bastions of community remaining, with the pandemic delivering the killing blow. The only way to reclaim any of it is for normal people to consciously choose to reject degradation as normal for the alternative of tradition and growth. You can see what I mean by seeing just what Gympie did to address the decay of modernity eating into everything around them.
Once again, the NZ Herald wrote about this subject here.
"While the mobile internet era continues to fuel the seemingly relentless march of the Netflix-Domino's-Uber juggernauts, it seems there is one place left, at least, that will not let it cost them their local businesses.
"In the past couple of years, the people of Gympie have mobilised in outrage over looming store closures the internet age has foisted upon them."
As one can see, Gympie is no different than any other town. They are going through much the same thing your own town is today. It is not centered on one country or general area. Modernity is a pandemic of its own.
It isn't mentioned enough about how the automation of every aspect of life is fostering more atomization and dehumanizing behavior. What is worse is the antisocial thinking we knew was wrong not even 23 years ago when Bowling Alone was written, now seen as a badge of pride. It is a good thing about how little you care about your neighbor or how one in a opposing political party is no longer a human being worth considering, just destroying. Being able to live your life without ever interacting with another human being (and being excited for such a future) or considering them all as objects worth hurdling over, is tremendously unhealthy both for you and society itself. This will not foster an improved higher trust network for people to grow in. It will make them separate from each other even more. Aiming for this as a goal is one of the worst aspects of modern thought. If we continue to let things go this way, we will lose everything.
Why we refuse to see this for what it is remains anyone's guess. As long as we ignore this very observable reality, it will continue to destroy us.
"First, it was when there were moves afoot by Pizza Hut to close the town's all-you-can-eat restaurant, one of just 15 left in Australia.
"Then came the news last month that its last remaining video store, Blockbuster, would shut its doors.
"Now, in a Big-M shaped cherry on top, the town has just welcomed a brand new roller skating rink, 25 years after the last one shut up shop.
"It comes complete with a regular Saturday night disco.
""If it's not going to work here, it's not going to work anywhere," owner Lena Nyberg laughingly told news.com.au, nearly a week after Skatezone opened its doors for the first time.
"The gold rush town is celebrated locally as the town that saved Queensland.
"Could it now be responsible for reviving arguably the Sunshine State's greatest decade?"
How Gympie correctly came to the conclusion that in order to fight decay one must build is anyone's guess. According to Hollywood, it is the small towns holding everyone back with "boredom" and a lack of Progress. And yet, they made the right call here while every other city in the modern world is working hard to tear itself apart.
However, the question you might be wondering as to the above quotation is why build a skating rink? Aren't those outdated in our constantly progressing society (which is just code words for insatiable greed that hops from fad to fad) and holding us back from Utopia or something? Wouldn't people prefer to ignore each other and hole up in their crumbling, poorly kept hovels getting more and more depressed and angry instead?
Well, this because the people themselves accessed and addressed the core problem, something Progressive and Forward-thinking cities have not.
It is about the community, not just you.
"Now, 25 years after Gympie lost its last skating rink, a new one has emerged, where, now, many an excited parent is returning to eight wheels to show their children where it all began.
"Lena Nyberg, who opened it with her roller hockey playing husband Darren, said it had taken them five years to find the right venue, and many people had been eagerly awaiting its return.
""We haven't even done any advertising, only Facebook and word-of-mouth so far," she said.
""The people who grew up at that rink skating are now in their 40s and are now bringing their kids here because it's something they can do as a family."
"But the 80s revival of the most 80s of sports does not end with the rollerskates.
"Saturday nights are disco nights, complete with music and light show, while there are also talk of the return of a Blue Light Disco to the venue in the near future.
"And outside the rink is an nostalgic's dream.
"Pretty gross, right, kids?
""We have a games table, with galactic space invaders, glass tables with all old school arcade games, pinball machines, and, of course, two Daytonas," she said.
"Despite the closure of the last roller skating rink in Bundaberg, two hours from Gympie, just last year, Mrs Nyberg said she and her husband believe it will be a successful business.
""Everything goes in roundabouts, fashion, sports, everything tends to go around, and I think it just phased out for a while," she said of the skating rink.
""People who did it a lot in the 80s got a bit bored, I suppose.
""It's really making a comeback. We know a few people who own rinks in Brisbane, the numbers are increasing, the popularity is increasing, and its definitely something making a comeback."
"We can only hope it's a comeback sans leg warmers and leotards."
And it should be mentioned that, yes, this place is still around today, six years after the original publication of this article.
Did you catch one of the key quotes in the article? It is a bit easy to miss in its original context, but its validity transcends just this piece:
"Everything goes in roundabouts, fashion, sports, everything tends to go around, and I think it just phased out for a while."
Find yourself a single politician that will ever utter that truth today.
Another story that the article relays is one about Pizza Hut deciding to turn itself into a delivery kiosk and getting rid of dining (score another for today's anti-social obsession) just like your local Pizza Hut probably already did without any pushback from your neighbors at all. Less work for them, less options for you. Clearly a win/win situation!
Well, in Gympie they actually did push back. In a down of near 20k, around 1300 people went on Facebook to complain, and the higher-ups listened. Now, their location still has the same buffets and desert bars that your local establishment already got rid of because nobody cares about anything around them anymore. I don't know what is in the water in Gympie, but it's clearly something the rest of us are missing out on.
Lastly, the article mentions the then-closing Blockbuster store in the town. I'm sure we're all familiar with this happening in our local areas since rental shops imploded during the 2000s before Blockbuster itself closed up in 2010. It looked as if that era was over and not coming back, lost in undeserved nostalgia for a corporation that kill mom and pop video shops. This, however, is the most interesting part of this entire story.
For those who don't know, renting was a big deal back in the 1980s and early 1990s before Blockbuster came in, backed by Hollywood, to corporatize and ruin the fun for everyone. They ended up closing all the local mom and pop stores thanks to the bigwigs in Hollywood before getting closed themselves by the end of the 2000s due to the streaming boom. Hollywood abandoned them for the next fad (Netflix) and consumers hopped along after, not taking in anything of what they were missing along the way towards their more convenient dopamine hit. A rental store in Current Year is just clearly not going to make it when consuming is easier than ever before, and we are taught that interacting with other human beings is Just The Worst. Clearly, that old era is over.
Or is it?
Gympie, a clearly very engaged and socially strong town, fought hard against this needless change for as long as possible. Even though it was Blockbuster, it was still all they had and they supported their local shop regardless. But the corporation was not made of as stern stuff as the community was. It never is. This lead to the inevitable.
"Blockbuster, the last remaining DVD hire store in Gympie, was apparently still a thriving business when the once-powerful company announced in late January that a dispute between owners had forced its closure.
"In a world where Netflix has hundreds of movies on demand at the touch of a button, it turns out many people in the Wide Bay-Burnett region town still prefer the tradition of heading down the DVD store to choose their evening's entertainment."
Again, Gympie's staunch support of their community is incredibly impressive in an age where most towns can't even bother supporting local businesses at all anymore. Just go online and hole up in your room all day and every day. But this is the opposite of what Gympie has tried to do. It almost feels as if they have fallen out of another reality entirely: a better one where common sense still exists and things can actually be built instead of torn down.
This section is the most interesting part of the story, and why it needs to be shared, especially in this age of doom and gloom or the inevitable rot we are living through. We think things are destined to always be like this, but that is not what happened here.
In this case, it was an independent rental store owner that saved the day.
"But just as there had been a sad kind of acceptant of the apparent inevitability of the move, up stepped the knight Gympie didn't know it was looking for.
"Peter Fife, a veteran of the town's home entertainment scene as owner of the Gympie Video Movie Barn, in the halcyon days of the 1980s, stepped in to revive the store.
""I felt for the staff when I heard and I felt for the regional area of Gympie," he told The Gympie Times.
""I realise a lot of people love this store. Where else can they go?"
"Blockbuster closed, as planned, and reopened this week as Network Video, complete with a brand new library of 20,000 titles on offer.
"A new member sign-up day is being held this Saturday."
Yes, this is something that happened in 2017, not 1987, 1997, or even 2007. It happened only a few years ago.
That's right, megacorp Blockbuster closed and was itself replaced with a mom & pop rental store headed by the people said juggernaut originally pushed out of the business. And yes, it is still around today. All the places mentioned in the article are still around, even after a pandemic that wiped out so much. That says quite a lot about this town that we can learn from. Very admirable for folk to stand against the harmful wave of Progress leading everything else around them to an early grave. How exactly did they do it? And why can't we seem to do it?
Regardless, what it proves is that nothing is inevitable. Things can improve, they can get better. The only thing stopping it, is us. We have bought into every lie about Progress there is, and have found ourselves trapped, unable to see that the way out, is backwards. It is going back to reclaim what we lost along the way. Only then can we finally see improvement again.
What happened in Gympie is a completely unexpected turn of event for anyone who has seen the same playbook being used over and over again over the years, especially those who live in towns that are looking more and more like third world countries by the day as local businesses crater left and right from lack of support and both buildings and streets are left in shambles. Gympie is essentially doing what we all should have been doing ages ago.
Instead of huddling alone in your dank and poorly lit room clicking buttons to consume movies you don't even own, Gympie decided to support pro-social and a traditional community activity. Instead of allowing more and more clubs and entertainment centers to fall away and leave people with nothing, Gympie decided to revive old establishments that were abandoned for silly and vain reasons in the dead-end march for Progress. Instead of treating everything as dopamine to continue living as a hermit-like junkie, Gympie supported community interaction and support of pro-customer practices we all used to cherish not even that long ago.
Essentially, Gympie did the complete opposite of what we did years ago when we shed everything that worked, and also put their money where their mouth is. Instead of accepting decay because it's easy, they instead fought for their social fabric and won. Even after a pandemic that only increased anti-social behaviors, they continue to do what must be done. Nothing is stopping us from doing the same except ourselves.
Of course this could very well change in the future and some out of date mindkilled Progressive type will demand for Gympie to keep up with the trends of 2010 that have already destroyed everything else around them. I'm sure we've all seen that happen more than once. hopefully they are aware enough of that trap to avoid it. We sure haven't.
However, what matters is the example Gympie sets by showing what valuing your community instead of ignoring it for your own selfish gain can do. Instead of letting rot settle in, fight for what you need to survive. Live for more than just being left alone to consume product. We need leisure to survive, but we also need community to grow. And we will never keep either by traveling down the road we are currently traveling down. That is very evident and obvious for everyone alive today. Well, everyone not avoiding the obvious state of things, that is.
We need better ways and, thanks to Gympie, we can now see exactly how that might work out if we just try. All thanks to one small, out of the way town in Australia.
If that doesn't say it all, nothing will.
I don't know about you, but I want the 21st century to build off the best aspects of the 20th we just left behind us. We are currently proudly doing the opposite of that. Regardless, we can still change course. All we need is a mindset shift. There are better days ahead, it won't always be like this and it won't always be worse. There can always be something better than this.
That's easier said than done, but it can be done. You just saw it happen yourself, and we can do it, too. And we can start today!
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