Human Geog: Expectations vs. Reality

McCracken (2006) has written extensively about the displacement of ideals and hopes, and how society uses the coveting of consumer goods to cope and tolerate their current life situation. His ideas struck a chord with me when I first arrived here in Utrecht, as I realised that this concept of displacement of hopes and ideals was something that I’d been doing for a few months.

Essentially, the concept behind McCracken’s piece revolves around the fact that today, in modern society, people are often not completely satisfied with their lives, there is always something more they could have, or they hope things will be a different way next year. McCracken suggests that people tend to cast their hopes either way back into the past, and think back to a better time, or they displace their ideals into the future, ‘one day my dream will realise itself’. He goes on to imply that through this displacement of hopes and ideals, individuals tend to better cope with their current situation. His article suggests how coveting objects or ‘consumer goods’ is all part of this displacement ideology. You wish and hope for something, and if eventually you manage to obtain it, then soon after, you start to anticipate the attainment of something new or better.

Although the whole premise of the article is not directly applicable to me, I hope it can become clear how certain aspects of McCracken’s ideas appear to relate to my situation, here, in Utrecht.

Looking back to around April time, it was revision, it was exams, and it was hard work. I wasn’t unhappy, but I certainly wasn’t having the time of my life, traipsing back and forth to the library most days. Maybe it was part of my keen and devoted procrastination, but one of my most used distraction techniques was thinking about my year abroad. I knew by that point that Utrecht was to be my year abroad destination, and through choosing my accommodation, constant googling of the city and course selections, I had a pretty clear vision of what my year abroad was going to be. I’ll paint the picture: riding around gracefully on my bike, speaking to tall blonde Dutch boys and eating stroopwafels. It was going to be so exciting, there would be no work and I would have loads of friends. These thoughts and daydreams were constant during exam time, and perhaps linking to what McCracken suggests, they helped me cope with my current situation, as I knew (or hoped) that I had so much fun waiting for me in just a few months. McCracken explains the concept: ‘goods help the individual contemplate the possession of an emotional condition, a social circumstance, even an entire style of life, by somehow concretizing these things in themselves. They become a bridge to displaced meaning and an idealized version of life as it should be lived’ (2006, pp.265). When I think back, I can see how I was displacing my ideals, putting them in a ‘future fun to be had’ box, I suppose my year abroad was the ‘good’ I was coveting.

Now, there is no more waiting, I am (supposedly) living that daydream, no more anticipation of the year abroad because I’ve got it now, it’s mine and I’m here. McCracken suggests, that in some cases, once a consumer has obtained the good that functioned as a ‘bridge’ to that hope or displaced ideal, and when they realise that their hopes and dreams are still unmet, then their life can be changed irreversibly…

…And this is where I begin to reflect on my situation. Within the first few days of arrival, I felt homesick, this wasn’t what I was expecting and it was nothing like my daydreams. I’m living in a concrete arch, I’m the least graceful bike rider there is, and everywhere I walk/ride I feel Dutch eyes boring into me accusing me of my foreignness. I feel like a stranger in the place that I am now supposed to call home - what have I done? I felt like the fool McCracken describes, who shoved all their hopes and dreams into the future, wished and wished for this and that, and then accidentally won the lottery. Now they can have anything they want, but they still don’t feel happy.

Update 2 weeks later:

I’ve been here almost a month now, and I feel that this post would benefit from some perspective. Maybe this will just prove how McCracken’s ideas can’t be moulded and changed to fit every situation; maybe consumer goods are the only situation this theory fits. No my year abroad isn’t exactly like my daydream, at least not yet, but so far it’s good. I have friends, I’m better at riding my bike, and I’m settling in. I suppose the thing about a year abroad is that it isn’t just one thing you get all at once, play with for a few days and then get bored of, it is a whole year of experience. I have time to find my way around and learn how to get the most out of my stay here. What I’m trying to say is, right now, there is no new anticipation or displaced ideal, it’s going well and I’m not daydreaming about 4^th year… just yet.

(Post originally written: Monday 12^th September 2016; Update: Wednesday 28^th September 2016)

References:

McCracken G. (2006) The evocative power of things: consumer goods and the preservation of hopes and ideals. In Jackson T. (ed) The Earthscan Reader in Sustainable Consumption. London: Earthscan. 263-277