Sunday 4 December 2011

Jam tomorrow

Jam tomorrow?


"I'm sure I'll take you with pleasure!" the Queen said. "Two pence a week, and jam every other day."
Alice couldn't help laughing, as she said, "I don't want you to hire ME – and I don't care for jam."
"It's very good jam," said the Queen.
"Well, I don't want any TO-DAY, at any rate."
"You couldn't have it if you DID want it," the Queen said. "The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam yesterday – but never jam to-day."
"It MUST come sometimes to 'jam to-day'," Alice objected.
"No, it can't," said the Queen. "It's jam every OTHER day: to-day isn't any OTHER day, you know."
"I don't understand you," said Alice. "It's dreadfully confusing!"

This classic piece of nonsense was written by Lewis Carroll in his book  Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There.  I have come across it many times, especially relating to the austerity period around the second world war, to illustrate deferred gratification: 'Jam tomorrow'. In other words, suffer now, but the good times are just around the corner. Take the medicine, and you will soon be better. Most people are prepared to accept this rationale as we understand that suffering precedes that passage into what Churchill called 'the broad sunlit uplands'. They understood that the defeat of tyranny in the 1940s would mean sacrifice, but also that in good time a new fairer world would emerge. Jam tomorrow.

In a brilliant but disturbing piece in yesterdays Times newspaper Matthew Parris speculated that the present period of austerity may not lead to lashings of Jam any time soon, never mind tomorrow. He thought-aloud as to whether this crisis might not be heralding the collapse of the post-war prosperity and the economic security that Europe has enjoyed since the last time people worried about Jam. Parris was suggesting that we might never enjoy Jam again and what impact this that might have on social cohesion in nations used to continually rising standards of living. We may soon find out

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