Is the phrase “van life” a new way of saying homeless?

WELL yeah obviously it can mean homeless, you might be thinking, unless you have a temporary camper van, a big driveway, a house and the means or fall-back to be able to wander about while earning a bit of pocket money.

If you have money in the first place then sure you might think — should I buy a camper, a motorbike, a canal barge, a yacht or a new 4 x 4 — or maybe your rich old parents gave you a camper they were too tired and satisfied to tramp around in. Either way, it’s always an advantage to have money in the first place when making lifestyle choices.

Putting the Victorian notion of a society based on the undeserving lazy poor for a minute, for a minute of prejudice-free loss of affluent smuggery, then contemplate the poverty of living in a van. Think about the cold, the isolation and the vulnerability. Why do it at all?

The rent has gone up to an extortionate, impossible amount, your wife divorced you, you had a breakdown at work, you hate your job so much you hate yourself. The new adventure sold as liberation from responsibilities and cost is to live in your van seems like a real option. So you buy a cheap van and move your bin bags full of clothes into it.

This could mean no toilet, no bin collection, no friends, no family and a life of car parks hoping for the miracle of evarlasting engines and rust-free safety. Keep pepper spray for self-defence, get a dog for a best friend and traipse up and down motorways and side roads all day looking for a view.

If you take a camera with you or have a decent phone you can become one of the minority of YouTubers using the rat race of online media to promote a lifestyle of escaping the rat race. Squash your tales of freedom into the mix with the constant ads and all the other competitors on the market and make sure your version is the coolest and most attractive.

If you’re reaing this then fair enough you can ask — Am I embittered at the thought that the reality of “escape” might mean sleeping in old diesel fumes by the side of the road hoping there won’t be a tap on the window in the middle of the night? Well yes. Of course.

Society is a rigged game which benefits the richest few the most, regardless of how hard the other billions work. Factual and easy to prove. The struggles of individuals who might isolate themselves kayaking off the Hebredes or sailing the Pacific is bound to make the disenfranchised feel bad about themselves. The fact that the poorer persons’ version of this can end up as a beaten caravan by the side of the road is disappointing.

To be told, as an additional putdown, you’re lower income because you are lazy and stupid does have a tendency to salt the social gash. If laziness os true of individuals it can’t be applied to entire continents like South America and Africa with any honesty. The inferior mass incomes of inferior mass populations? Not my thinking as a Sociology graduate and former local reporter with some minor social research skills. And laziness is not applicable to me thank you.

It’s mostly disappointing because back in the 90s I believed in it. The traveller people. The noble outcasts of society rebelling against the norms of familly, home and jobs. It was the dream — like popstar, astronaut, striking miner, world famous writer, drop out spike-haired warrior. Part of being young and being tired of being slapped across the head and shouted at. You could be free — preferably with a girlfriend and a poochie.

In my imagined world, I ignored the drug taking on some sites and felt the shame of knowing that dropping out from society meant claiming benefits from society. Simply, I understood the idea of trying it. Related to it.

And I could listen to Kurt Cobain — who did live in a trailer park and was said to be sleeping in his car under a bridge in the summer of 91 after Nirvana recorded NeverMind — and think, yeah he got it.

My conclusion is that human kindness and sympathy is important in our society. Generosity of spirit towards the affluent and respect for the not affluent. The intentions of van life seekers can often be entirely genuine and reasonable.

Overla though what is van life? It’s a symptom of inequality, social breakdown, the international property scam and meaningless, poorly paid work. It’s a human response.

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