Don't you know there's a war on?

P.J.Wells at open.ac.uk P.J.Wells at open.ac.uk
Mon Mar 25 07:08:09 PST 2002


James Heartfield wrote:


>As if we'd never heard of this cheese-paring before. In the 1930s and
>again in the 1970s European governments often promoted these campaigns
>to reduce consumption (so that wages could be held down). Slogans like
>'Is your journey really necessary?', 'make do and mend', 'holidays at
>home', 'dig for victory', 'save it' and 'put that light out' were
>standard fare in government information films.

Coming from someone with a UK e-mail address and sent to a list with mainly US subscribers, this is ignorant at best and deliberately misleading at worst.

afaik ALL the official slogans Heartfield mentions were neither from the 1930s or the 1970s but from the period 1939-45.

In this period most people, and certainly most workers, thought some sacrifice in consumption a necessary evil in the cause of beating Hitler.

And any individualistic moaners who complained about petty personal inconveniences were met with the popular -- not government-inspired -- riposte which I quote as the subject-line of this message.

Julian



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