Environmental and Social Aspects of Domestic Bathing - Ethical Engineering for International Development and Environmental Sustainability - page 192

This chapter is organised by establishing the importance of bathing; by discussing
the social and personal aspects of bathing, which are fundamental; and then by turn-
ing to technical aspects, which are responses to the fundamental needs and values.
To that point the discussion is general. The ground is then prepared for discussing
the various methods of bathing and comparing them. Finally, we step back and take
a second look at the whole subject in its cultural context.

2 Context

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age
of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season
of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of
despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us …. (Dickens 1859 , p 1)

A book which deals with international stability, environmental stability, engi-
neering ethics and sustainable development must surely engage at many points with
the contradictions so eloquently indicated in this quotation, even if our take on our
own times inevitably differs from Dickens' view of an earlier time. Excessive con-
sumption by those prosperous enough to do so is one of the principal contradictions
of our times. Bathing is here treated as an exemplar of these contradictions. On the
one hand, thoughtless, consumerist bathing contributes signifi cantly to resource use
and pollution; on the other hand, mindful bathing can be economical and
pleasurable.

International Stability This phrase has a special connection with the Cold War
and needs some unpicking in order that we may deal with today's conditions. In
those times the principal actors on the world stage were thought to be nation states,
especially the two superpowers, the USA and the Soviet Union. Today, this is seen
not to be the case, and one may indeed question whether it was ever that simple.
There is now more interest in additional actors, notably banks, other large multina-
tional corporations, powerful plutocratic individuals and religious groups. As for
stability, the concern then, understandably enough, was to save ourselves from an
apocalyptic instability in the form of a release, in whatever manner and for whatever
reason, of the gigantic nuclear arsenals which were deployed with hair-trigger read-
iness (Craig and Jungerman 1986 ). In this article I will assume that the stability we
now seek is of a more general kind, global and cultural. Such a stability cannot
however mean stasis. We may hope and work for no more (!) than improving jus-
tice, marginalising war and reversing the overload of the earth's long-developed
ecology.

Environmental Stability In the course of history (i.e. the period in which written
records exist), many sophisticated and large empires have fl ourished - and died. Yet
human civilisation did not die out, because others, dismissed by the imperialists as
barbarians, turned out not to be so very different and established a new empire. In
many cases those imperial collapses were due to exhaustion of natural resources