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Murdoch: at the Olympics | 100 comments (100 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)
Re: Channeling Graeber (none / 0)
I have very great doubts as to the long-term viability of a muni with only 500 residents. That sounds like the sort of place God made for young people to leave and never return to.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Tue Aug 7th, 2012 at 07:21:14 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Channeling Graeber (4.00 / 2)
When I moved there, I was probably the first immigrant since about the time Julius Caesar passed that way. The population was about 300, and it was pretty much as you describe.

20 years later, when I left, the population was about 500 and climbing, and had lost its former ethnic purity (Gaulish, of the Segusiave tribe). Mainly because it's half an hour's drive from an old industrial city experiencing urban flight.

It was a fine place to bring up young children.

It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II

by eurogreen on Tue Aug 7th, 2012 at 10:45:03 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Channeling Graeber (none / 1)
That particular growth model does not really alleviate my doubts about the long-term viability of the project...

Urban flight is going to reverse. Soon and hard.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Tue Aug 7th, 2012 at 12:36:10 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Channeling Graeber (none / 0)
The policy of the council at that period was to issue enough housing permits to enable the primary school to keep four classes. I pointed out that this wasn't actually a good model of sustainability, but they were doing their best with the worldview they had.

And I'm not sure about the reversal of urban flight. The city they left has lots of cheap housing available; and there are no jobs there.

It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II

by eurogreen on Tue Aug 7th, 2012 at 01:57:02 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Channeling Graeber (none / 1)
I was probably the first immigrant since about the time Julius Caesar passed that way.

Ethno-nationalist romanticism likes to project local traditions and ancestry local ancestry several centuries back into the past. Truth is, rural collective memory is shorter than often assumed, and both ideas and people moved around a lot. I think that of the melting pot of the Roman Empire, the Burgundian migration, the Frank conquests, the Huguenot wars, at least some must have left their trace in the local gene pool.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.

by DoDo on Tue Aug 7th, 2012 at 01:01:46 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Channeling Graeber (none / 1)
Well, according to local tradition, the evil Baron des Adrets, the bloodthirstiest of Protestant generals in the 16th century wars of religion, won a pitched battle nearby, and our stream ran red with blood.  However, in this remote and eternally poor mountain region, 50km southwest of Lyon, there were no fertile lands to settle, nothing much to plunder, and it's completely unstrategic. The Loire plains to the immediate west, and the Rhone valley to the immediate east, yes, they have seen more than their share of great migrations, invasions etc... but no trace of significant population influx that I ever found.

As for people moving around a lot. Not. Genealogical research by my ex-wife demonstrated that your spouse came from an area within walking distance, for your basic peasants, until the early 20th century.

It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II

by eurogreen on Tue Aug 7th, 2012 at 01:44:35 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Channeling Graeber (none / 0)
Maybe for 98% in certain areas in the last 1000 years. But even the 2% remaining (and non-peasants) is enough.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.
by DoDo on Tue Aug 7th, 2012 at 01:55:10 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Channeling Graeber (none / 0)
no trace of significant population influx that I ever found.

Where did you search for it? Speaking of which, when was the first mention of your village in historical records?

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.

by DoDo on Tue Aug 7th, 2012 at 02:13:02 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Murdoch: at the Olympics | 100 comments (100 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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