I have to be honest, when I saw ‘81 ACK’ sat there exuding opulence and then spotted ‘G4FFA’ sat proudly behind it today, it felt like they had to be a prompt for a post.

Isn’t it funny what floats people’s boats. At COP 28 a few hundred million dollars have been pledged (so far) for the Loss and Damage Fund (seems like a drop in the ocean) and yet the personalised number plate market in the UK is alone worth about $300M a year now.

While parts of the world see their livelihoods destroyed by extreme weather, others are choosing to make statements (and it seems also investments) by personalising their vehicles.

I found a BBC article from 2013 titled “Why do people still buy personalised number plates?”

The article said “For the thousands of drivers who actually have personalised number plates, they are regarded as a statement of individuality or an investment. To many of the vast majority that don’t have one they’re an ostentatious waste of cash.”

Someone is quoted in the article as saying “If there’s something you want in life, and you can afford it, then why not go out and buy it.” I guess I’m happier with people buying personalised number plates than space flights, private jets and super yachts. I also get that some people have grafted really hard from humble beginnings and want to make a statement of ‘I’ve made something of myself, I’m here’.

Personally I find personalised number plates a big turn-off. What would have excited me much more would to have been able to walk past a Fiat 500e with a standard issue number plate or better still to see those parking spaces turned over to tiny green parks (known as ‘parklets’).

Who knows the individual story behind a vehicle and its owner but personalised number plates to me convey a strong sense of the decadence or aspiration to decadence that resembles pride before a fall.

As my good friend Andrew Jackson from New Zealand explained to me recently, history shows us that civilisations go through phases before they collapse. “The Cycle of Civilization” article on Medium from last year lists seven phases as follows:

Phase 0/7 — Emergence of the New; Collapse of the Old
Phase 1 — Stability: Egalitarian; ecological and economic harmony and equilibrium
Phase 2 — Early Growth (Age of Pioneers or Conquests): Division of labor.
Phase 3 — Prosperity (Age of Commerce): Relatively long period of peace & prosperity.
Phase 4 — Overshoot (Age of Affluence): Conspicuous overuse of resources.
Phase 5 — Hubris (Age of Intellect): Power concentrated in the hands of a few hubristic individuals who “know best.” Standard of living plummets.
Phase 6 — Totalitarianism (Age of Decadence): Dictatorial government & leaders, censorship & propaganda, civil uprisings.
Phase 7/0 — Collapse of the Old; Emergence of the New: Civil society starts organizing in new ways; new forms of governance emerge.

Which Phase do you think 81 ACK and G4FFA reflect and how long before Phase 7/0?

#decadence#lossanddamage#personalised