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The Critical Unraveling of U.S. Society
I am so indecisive about laying blame on Joe Sixpack and Sally SoapOpera. On the one hand, we should all answer to our own irresponsible actions. I'd bet, from the tone of your post, that we are similar in that we're tired of the victim/blame game. America is like a nation of 300 million adolencent brats. It's never my fault.
The flip side is that we also live in a corporate dominated, mass media culture, where our brains are continually subjected to purchase pressure. Spend! Spend! Spend! Spend.
We could discuss at length, until the cows come home, how we allowed ourselves to get to that point. But it would really be an academic exercise. The fact is that mass media has morphed the American Citizen into the American Consumer.
We are a "gotta have it", materially addicted society. Nearly every institution in our culture pushes that concept, especially the mass media.
Until we change that, blaming the American Consumer is a moot point.
The described tension is actually a very old one. Wendell Berry, in his essay Think Little, brought this Confucian notion to my attention: "There is a chief way for the production of wealth, namely, that the producers be many and that the mere consumers be few, that the artisan mass be energetic and the consumers temperate."
Notice that wealth is not the same as riches, that it's about participation, process and whole people who are not looking for completion via stuff. I think wealth is another word for sustainability, and believe Buckminster Fuller, echoing with "organized capability" the preceeding quote, did, too:
" ...'I think that what we all really mean by wealth is as follows: 'Wealth is our organized capability to cope effectively with the environment in sustaining our healthy regeneration and decreasing both the physical and metaphysical restrictions of the forward days of our lives.' ''
Because production (not the same as holding a paying job these days) must be ubiquitous, the critical reweaving of U. S. society will happen in locales. This is why Transition Towns are important. If you've been repelled by something you've seen in them, getting involved is the best, the producer's, way to correct them. Not correcting them is the consumer's way: "I don't buy that. I'll keep looking for what meets all my criteria."
No producer will go un(der)valued by a Transition initiative for long.
David Eggleton http://woburnite.com/blog/5 | http://www.appliedecologics.com "There is a chief way for the production of wealth, namely, that the producers be many and that the mere consumers be few." - a Confucian observation (of ecosystems, I believe)
I like to think that I am immune to the charms of shiny objects. However, recently while waiting for a friend I picked up a glossy magazine from his coffee table. I think it was Gentleman's Quarterly. I found myself feeling, well, inferrior. I dont have the fancy sports car or the thousand dollar watch. The advertising made it obvious to me that I will probably never have sex with lithe young maidens because I dont wear Italian loafers and English tweed. I am not young, and not very socially involved, but if I were this would probably cause me to consider running up some debt.
deggleton and Sam,
You guys are Funny and I mean that in the most admirable way!
Sam, once, a long time ago (before I was a grandmother), I was a lithe young maiden with long thick hair, perky breasts, and sparkly green eyes and I never would have had sex with any guy who wore Italian loafers! English tweed, well, that might be another matter, especially if he had the capacity to grow a beard and maybe a PhD. Advertising is a sales pitch no different in reality than that of a seedy "used car salesman" -- just more polished, maybe.
deggleton, your town is a transition town if you or any of your neighbors is transitioning. Does your town have a farmer's market, are there CSA's around, or garage sales? You said"
Notice that wealth is not the same as riches, that it's about participation, process and whole people who are not looking for completion via stuff.
Sounds like you are "transitioning" into finding real "wealth" in the Wendell Berry/Buckmister Fuller sense. The more you "transition", the more you will find others of like mind/action. You are the change you wish (or are ready) to see.
Okay, here I go.
I have been coming to this site for a few months now and find it absolutely fascinating. Although I am not highly educated (my lips get sore from reading these posts)
, I consider myself some one with alot of common sense. For the past 10 years or so I have struggled to keep my wife in check. I am not talking about sneaking out with Tiger but with her compulsion to upgrade our current home. It seems that everyone (so she says) figures they should have a $500k home on a golf course. Of course the 'everyone' I know pulls in an annual household income of $100-150k. The banks have no problem giving huge mortgages to these people. Oh yeah, they also have no problem giving car loans for their $50000 SUVs, credit cards to pay off their other credit cards and Lines of credit to readjust when the first three get out of control.
To me "Joe Sixpack" does not get off so easy. I understand how enticing the system became, how easy it was to get "things" but we are adults here, are we not? The same people buying cars they couldn't afford and houses they had no business investing in, were trying to tell their kids that the Abercrombie and Fitch tee shirt, that cost 30 cents to produce, was not a wise purchase at $40. After a hour of whining they would relent and "charge it!!". Screw the needs....gimmee the wants.
Having said all that, I know we are being screwed over by the powers that be. Everyday I become angrier and everyday I try to spread the gospel of this site. But people don't want to hear it, they want it to be like it was. Well Dorothy, you're not in Kansas anymore.
The future scares the crap out of me and I believe I am better prepared for it then 95% of the population. I have given my wife a choice (after all we are in this together). We either sell the house and rent or use our RRSPs to buy out our mortgage when it comes due. Yes, we are Canadian, just outside of Toronto, but don't go thinking we are imune. We have a housing bubble and its getting bigger everyday. We also have an economy that is 90% reliant on the US consumer. So even though our banks were a little wiser and more stringent don't think for a second that we are not in trouble also.
Okay, now the crazy stuff. Having watched Ron Pauls video (Feb 4th) that he put out warning us of civil unrest and an impending war (to divert our attention), I would like to post my conspiracy theory. There will be no war. Krikey, you already have two on going wars now.
No, I foresee an "epidemic" of imense proportions on the horizon. The testing has probably already begun (see the Ukraine last October) and it will come in the form of a "mutated strain" of the swine flu. Oh, did I mention that the only people I hate more then Bankers are the Pharmaceutical companies?
Medicate me, don't cure me, medicate me more...... thank you.
Just wanted to post it so I can say 'I told you so' to the few remaining.
Cheers for now....
Gungnir: You are right that we have the worst of both worlds, however, I submit that much/most of the government side has been orchestrated by the same individuals that currently control the economic system. They have managed to make the entire system work for their benefit. I suggest that what we are seeing is the logical extension of the Randian system in that that the next generation of John Galt must ultimately look for more control that requires the heavy hand of government to pull it off. We see the heads of the Corporatocracy justifying their actions on the basis that what is selfishly good for them benefits everyone -- that, I also submit is clearly proving to be a false assumption as we see playing out in today's reality.
Jim