FIRE!

I watched a documentary series about The Great London Fire of 1666. I can’t recommend it for the writing, so cliche-ridden, so larded with tabloidesque expositions, delivered with such earnestness by a team of narrators who can’t be blamed for the material they’re given.  Despite that, the information about the Great Fire itself is worth learning as far as it goes. It is relatable in a metaphoric way to the social/political crisis we’re currently in here in the US as the Londoners were caught up in that devastating fire. 

Vast areas were destroyed by a force virtually unstoppable by any methods available to the people facing it. They didn’t have the tools or resources or understanding to get the job done, and were failed by the first line of defense: the Mayor of London, who, rather than upset the wealthy and powerful people whose support he craved, declined to give orders to pull down their houses to create a fire-break that would have saved maybe 2/3 of the rest of the city. Instead he is remembered for a glib remark, that “A woman’s pissing could put out this fire.”

Most of the greatest landmark structures of the city burned, including Saint Paul’s Cathedral and the centers of finance and trade. The economy was shredded, homes and livelihoods destroyed, the worst of human desperation, greed and opportunism came out to play. 

The official death toll was noted as 6. But it was pointed out that some of the slum areas that burned were crowded with the kind of people that no one bothered to care about let alone count. Also, the fire burned so hot, driven by constant winds, that human remains would have been, along with buildings and possessions, burned to ash.

So, where’s the metaphor?

I see it in the similarity between indifferent, overwhelming natural forces–the fire and the winds–and the force of unchecked irrationality coupled with unmitigated greed and selfishness currently sweeping this country. Losses for many are immense and will be irrecoverable, though overall rebuilding will be possible with improvements put in place to reduce the chances of such a catastrophe happening again. 

The buildings of London in those times were largely constructed of materials that neglect had made into literal tinder; after the fire, brick replaced wattle-and-daub. Houses could no longer overhang the streets in the unsustainable fashion of earlier times. No longer were obvious hazards overlooked or ignored or just taken as “the way it’s done.”  

In the US, when our ‘fire’ is finally out, rebuilding of basic infrastructure will have to be done with ‘brick’ instead of our traditional, unconsidered ‘wattle and daub’ mentality regarding education, election rules and electoral manipulation, among other things. 

So, the documentary was useful if not all that well-made. It did make me think about things that need to be thought about.