Situationism. And Ebb & Flo

I'm not sure now but I reckon that I first heard the term Situationist in an article about Malcolm McLaren. I can't remember what I made of the term but, given that he was a bit of a prankster, I probably thought it was related to that. It sounded like it might.

I first took I real interest in the term when I heard it applied to Bill Drummond, who's quite a hero of mine, and I tried to find out more about it. The problem, though, was that there didn't appear to be any 'Situationism For Idiots' available and I found many of the articles about it rather impenetrable.

Still, I keep going back to it, including the occasion a couple of years ago when Barry Andrews of Shriekback blogged about psycho-geography, a concept that not only gripped me but that appeared to be linked to Situationism. I love walking through cities and making them my own, so here was another slippery concept for me to try and grasp.

And now I'm back into Situationism, taking another run at it, reading articles on Wikipedia and in The Guardian and anywhere else I find them, toying with buying books for which even the favourable reviews criticise the translations (the originals are mostly French), and struggling with a lot of terminology, a chunk of which appears to be Marxist. And talking about it, too, mostly with Simon, trying to frame and understand the nebulous concepts.

I won't attempt to explain what I have gleaned of it here except to say that I very much like what I perceive to be the anti-consumerist attitude at its core. And by that, I'm not only referring to the act of buying products but also buying into an idealised lifestyle. I think there is a valuable act of rebellion there, in thinking for ourselves. (And in that respect, maybe my most pro-Situationist act has been the simple lack of owning a television, which, after four years, I still find hugely liberating.)

And while it would be too long (and boring) to explain my thinking here, I also think that shopping locally, by which I mean avoiding high street chains, is a Situationist act. It's partly about rejecting the impetus to shop in places that advertise on TV and in magazines and papers, partly about finding your own places.

Which brings me to Ebb & Flo, the independent bookshop in Chorley, which has been open for around three years. Launching a bookshop in this age of Amazon is the bravest business start up I've come across. Going in there today, starting my Christmas shopping, was amazing. Within a few minutes, I had eight books in my arms, ones that I can't imagine I would ever have come across - or been guided to - on Amazon.

There's so much value in these small, local shops, stocked according to someone's taste, bringing so much variety to our streets. I waxed lyrical about Keswick before for the same reason. And the profits these shops make stays local, it's not squirrelled away offshore, bypassing the collection of corporation tax. It seems to me that regardless of Brexit, the best thing we can do for our economy is to shop amongst ourselves.