At the end of an era, you cut your losses and make your way back. You go back to what you once conceived of as your ‘authentic self’. You’re constantly trying to define yourself by holding up the content of your life, the people and ruling ideas, against your murky past; you try to find something cohesive. Like looking at negatives in some expansive dark room, we’re trying to find some image that makes sense and is consistent. That’s it really. So easily I can sum up all the machinery and emotion that one arrives at when he stares into the face of the road ahead, stretching from that door just closed to some infinite darkness, but all the knowledge in the world couldn’t make it any easier.
You simply go through the motions, once again, and you marvel at all the constancies you can draw between this time and the last time. Then, you become suddenly afraid at all the inconstancies, at how time has, without your approval, decided to change everything, all the old rules of engagement and social codes. Now you have to learn everything again. What was certain, only moments ago, is now undeniably unclear. So you bounce, like a skipping stone, from one minor tragedy to the next, all the while unable to piece together enough similar threads from each to make something to cushion the fall with. The wisdom you obtain is mostly too abstract or too case-specific to ever use again, which, grimly, you appreciate.
The only thing I really lament about the process is the initial stage of overwhelming doubt and the sense you’re being crushed on all sides by a shapeless lack of foresight. Stupidly you peer into the dark distance, stooping a little bit, slightly changing your vantage to no avail. Meanwhile, you know the only way you actually get anywhere is a constant battle of trial and error, catch and release, and so on. Too weary to try something different, you embark on a meaningless grace period of simply ‘being’. Maybe you drink too much, or play too much Grand Theft Auto, either way, you decide to waste time till a better idea becomes available. When it does, you’re life is so different you don’t even notice.
The real tragedy of our lives is this exchange between one version of ourselves and the next; they never really get to meet. It lies in that telling moment when you look back at a period of your life and wonder, why did I do that? Or, why did I feel that way? Somewhere, in some lost dimension, your self right now is furious at your future self for becoming someone different and forgetting the beauty of her past. For all my nostalgia I can never really connect with my past. A veil, it seems, obscures images that, at one time or another, were clear and vivid. These are the transgressions of a momentary lapse in comprehension; they are the infinite inconsistencies of human existence and the trials of our modern lives - whatever that means.
So we push on in our travail toward satisfaction. Perhaps, if we don’t change so much the goals are easier to obtain. Or, if you change in just the right ways, stop making the right mistakes, you can go back and fix what you’ve broken. However, by that time, chances are you’ll be someone else entirely. Unfortunately destined to soldier on some different path you didn’t consciously chose while your old self tries desperately to reign you in again. Then again, what do I know? I’m back there with you, looking into the oppressive darkness, stooping dumbly, trying to change my vantage to no avail.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Monday, June 1, 2009
Wealth, Entitlement and the Relation between Production and Consumption in America:
An Essay on 21st Century Capitalism’s Epic Failure.
My computer desk is parallel to a wall, on which a giant map of the world is displayed. Maps, it seems to me, are relatively unfashionable wall-hangings now, and globes are even less popular. I wonder how instructive Kellie Pickler’s performance on the dreadful show, Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader really is? Not only was it startling, indeed terrifying, that she was unaware of Europe’s status as a continent (not a country) or that she thought that perhaps Budapest was the capital of France - the concept of the program is, in itself equally scary, if not more-so. Any culture where it is a challenge for an adult to outsmart a ten year old, is a culture in decay. Regardless of the show’s ostensible irony and self mockery, the stupidity of working-class Americans should not be fodder for their own entertainment – it is indicative of a kind of narcissistic-solipsism, “That person is so stupid, we are similar, but I am not that stupid”, and it is a light-hearted example of what this current economic crisis really is: a human resource crisis.
It need not be strictly the domain of political scientists and economists to diagnose our marketplace’s illness, because the ailment is common and obvious: we over consume and under produce. However, what has continually gone unmentioned is our inability to produce. It often feels like a matter of choice, it seems as though we all got together at some point and chose to outsource labour, and seek employment in abstract fields like economics and personal finance; to essentially be in the business of dealing with money, rather than actually generating any. Perhaps to better understand our current predicament we should stop talking about money entirely, because it is a vague concept that only clouds what is a much simpler problem, a problem that has nothing to do with money, per say, and more to do with credit, production, over consumption and that old jest the American Dream.
The reconstitution of Mercantile Capitalism in America, made possible entirely through the Transatlantic Slave Trade, developed production and consumption relationships with very finite life spans. The de-institutionalization of slavery and indentured servitude, presented the American marketplace with a similar, albeit much less serious and ethically disturbing problem like professional sports has encountered with the use of steroids. How do you conduct business fairly after acknowledging finally, that it has been done unfairly for so long. Those who make an ethical decision not to use steroids, although following a morally higher path, put themselves at a physical disadvantage to steroid users. How do you restructure the rules to insure fair-play? More importantly, for the future of the sport, how does one reestablish expected norms of player behavior that will at once navigate out of the steroid problem and establish business trends to extend beyond the problem indefinitely.
The American financial system before the abolishment of slavery was cheating. The labour is free, and the labourers are disenfranchised, or better put, non-franchised, because they were never agents of their own freewill, at least not in this economic system which was bereft of ethics or humanity. For the landowning class, wealth was unlimited, progress was endless, and growth was infinite. I will argue that the American relationship between owner, labourer and consumer has never really shook free from this mould. With careful precision the proto-capitalist will do everything in his power to maintain this status quote, which encourages conspicuous consumption, the disenfranchisement of the working class and the continued proliferation of inequality.
This admission of guilt on behalf of the modern business person, is repelled with well-practiced claims about capitalism's profiteering from equality, "the more consumers are successful the more they can consume and further stimulate the economy", if this is the goal of capitalism in America then it has failed miserably. It is no secret that the gap between rich and poor continues to widen, and that job layoffs and unemployment are more to the disadvantage of the working classes. There was a time however, as recent as the 1970's when Finally Got The News, a film about the creation of black labour unions in the motor city was made, when the American economy was propped up by products produced and sold in America. Now however, those educated within the American post-secondary system seek jobs in finance, law, politics, and other things dealing largely with intellectual or abstract property. And so it becomes simply inevitable that the system will collapse, and it did.
Not only was the average American middle class suburbanite living beyond her means, but America as a nation, as an economic force of consumption and minimal production was living beyond its means.This comes partly from the new, sick American dream, and the audacious assumption that the reign would be infinite. Why else would GM consistently make cars that no one wanted to drive? Why would Chrysler, in the face of an energy crisis, make cars that guzzle gas in a way only comparable to the cars they made in the late 60's and early 70's? In a word, arrogance. This is simply the ugly truth - we want to think this recession is something that has been done to us, primarily by 'the banks', this massive assailant we have demonized and scapegoated. Although the banks did business like cash rich teenagers, it is nevertheless counter productive to avoid the blame in this catastrophe, or at the very lease, some of the blame. It was the Citizen, after all, who took on the mortgage she couldn't afford, and the American who drove the SUV and spent money like he was on vacation. We began to believe we needed those things, which yes, we were told we needed. But still, we believed it.
In an effort to never compromise we compromised ourselves, our rationality, and our foresight. They sold the American dream and the American chose to live in it, but of course, as with any dream, regardless of how sweet it may be, we were destined to awake with cold shoulders, amidst tireless reality, which despite our neglect, never stopped existing. Now, most likely and contrary to what the executive government says it's going to do, we will patch up the old broken system and batten down the empire's hatches for another storm that is nestled deep in the far off horizon. We will stand, breath bated, on the American shore watching it come, naively hoping that it will simply pass by. It would take something similar to the civil war to disrupt the power structure; the slaves have to demand their own freedom. Yes, that is the real state of things, and to feel free now, when you are not, is the worst kind of sin. That is how we have truly compromised ourselves; by watching them take the reins and steer us into oblivion, and to feel, not only like a complacent spectator, but also like a willful participant. As has always been the case, the advancement of the working class is the key to survival. By producing more and consuming less, and not listening to the pundits who tell you that the world economy depends on our conspicuous consumption, we can point ourselves in a more favorable direction.
Unfortunately, doing so is far more difficult than saying so. We will not simply get the richest one percent to agree to redevelop the American market relationships in favour of the labourer, clerk and merchant. It will require vigilance and organization and above all else, faith. Not faith in the pacifying religious sense; having stock in the strength of human thought and good intentions. Finally, we have to want better to obtain better. Before self reliance can be demanded, one must believe in her own independence and her entitlement to freedom. Change necessitates, by its very nature, overwhelming effort and expansive thought. Revitalization requires large scale planning and direct action, unwavering conviction and the underlying sense that what we're doing is right. We must recapture the momentum, and this time, we cannot let it be taken away by ideologues, fear mongers and the greedy. Do not be fooled by success as you now know it. Define it for yourself, and strive towards it responsibly, as you once did.
Jesse Borg, June 2009
My computer desk is parallel to a wall, on which a giant map of the world is displayed. Maps, it seems to me, are relatively unfashionable wall-hangings now, and globes are even less popular. I wonder how instructive Kellie Pickler’s performance on the dreadful show, Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader really is? Not only was it startling, indeed terrifying, that she was unaware of Europe’s status as a continent (not a country) or that she thought that perhaps Budapest was the capital of France - the concept of the program is, in itself equally scary, if not more-so. Any culture where it is a challenge for an adult to outsmart a ten year old, is a culture in decay. Regardless of the show’s ostensible irony and self mockery, the stupidity of working-class Americans should not be fodder for their own entertainment – it is indicative of a kind of narcissistic-solipsism, “That person is so stupid, we are similar, but I am not that stupid”, and it is a light-hearted example of what this current economic crisis really is: a human resource crisis.
It need not be strictly the domain of political scientists and economists to diagnose our marketplace’s illness, because the ailment is common and obvious: we over consume and under produce. However, what has continually gone unmentioned is our inability to produce. It often feels like a matter of choice, it seems as though we all got together at some point and chose to outsource labour, and seek employment in abstract fields like economics and personal finance; to essentially be in the business of dealing with money, rather than actually generating any. Perhaps to better understand our current predicament we should stop talking about money entirely, because it is a vague concept that only clouds what is a much simpler problem, a problem that has nothing to do with money, per say, and more to do with credit, production, over consumption and that old jest the American Dream.
The reconstitution of Mercantile Capitalism in America, made possible entirely through the Transatlantic Slave Trade, developed production and consumption relationships with very finite life spans. The de-institutionalization of slavery and indentured servitude, presented the American marketplace with a similar, albeit much less serious and ethically disturbing problem like professional sports has encountered with the use of steroids. How do you conduct business fairly after acknowledging finally, that it has been done unfairly for so long. Those who make an ethical decision not to use steroids, although following a morally higher path, put themselves at a physical disadvantage to steroid users. How do you restructure the rules to insure fair-play? More importantly, for the future of the sport, how does one reestablish expected norms of player behavior that will at once navigate out of the steroid problem and establish business trends to extend beyond the problem indefinitely.
The American financial system before the abolishment of slavery was cheating. The labour is free, and the labourers are disenfranchised, or better put, non-franchised, because they were never agents of their own freewill, at least not in this economic system which was bereft of ethics or humanity. For the landowning class, wealth was unlimited, progress was endless, and growth was infinite. I will argue that the American relationship between owner, labourer and consumer has never really shook free from this mould. With careful precision the proto-capitalist will do everything in his power to maintain this status quote, which encourages conspicuous consumption, the disenfranchisement of the working class and the continued proliferation of inequality.
This admission of guilt on behalf of the modern business person, is repelled with well-practiced claims about capitalism's profiteering from equality, "the more consumers are successful the more they can consume and further stimulate the economy", if this is the goal of capitalism in America then it has failed miserably. It is no secret that the gap between rich and poor continues to widen, and that job layoffs and unemployment are more to the disadvantage of the working classes. There was a time however, as recent as the 1970's when Finally Got The News, a film about the creation of black labour unions in the motor city was made, when the American economy was propped up by products produced and sold in America. Now however, those educated within the American post-secondary system seek jobs in finance, law, politics, and other things dealing largely with intellectual or abstract property. And so it becomes simply inevitable that the system will collapse, and it did.
Not only was the average American middle class suburbanite living beyond her means, but America as a nation, as an economic force of consumption and minimal production was living beyond its means.This comes partly from the new, sick American dream, and the audacious assumption that the reign would be infinite. Why else would GM consistently make cars that no one wanted to drive? Why would Chrysler, in the face of an energy crisis, make cars that guzzle gas in a way only comparable to the cars they made in the late 60's and early 70's? In a word, arrogance. This is simply the ugly truth - we want to think this recession is something that has been done to us, primarily by 'the banks', this massive assailant we have demonized and scapegoated. Although the banks did business like cash rich teenagers, it is nevertheless counter productive to avoid the blame in this catastrophe, or at the very lease, some of the blame. It was the Citizen, after all, who took on the mortgage she couldn't afford, and the American who drove the SUV and spent money like he was on vacation. We began to believe we needed those things, which yes, we were told we needed. But still, we believed it.
In an effort to never compromise we compromised ourselves, our rationality, and our foresight. They sold the American dream and the American chose to live in it, but of course, as with any dream, regardless of how sweet it may be, we were destined to awake with cold shoulders, amidst tireless reality, which despite our neglect, never stopped existing. Now, most likely and contrary to what the executive government says it's going to do, we will patch up the old broken system and batten down the empire's hatches for another storm that is nestled deep in the far off horizon. We will stand, breath bated, on the American shore watching it come, naively hoping that it will simply pass by. It would take something similar to the civil war to disrupt the power structure; the slaves have to demand their own freedom. Yes, that is the real state of things, and to feel free now, when you are not, is the worst kind of sin. That is how we have truly compromised ourselves; by watching them take the reins and steer us into oblivion, and to feel, not only like a complacent spectator, but also like a willful participant. As has always been the case, the advancement of the working class is the key to survival. By producing more and consuming less, and not listening to the pundits who tell you that the world economy depends on our conspicuous consumption, we can point ourselves in a more favorable direction.
Unfortunately, doing so is far more difficult than saying so. We will not simply get the richest one percent to agree to redevelop the American market relationships in favour of the labourer, clerk and merchant. It will require vigilance and organization and above all else, faith. Not faith in the pacifying religious sense; having stock in the strength of human thought and good intentions. Finally, we have to want better to obtain better. Before self reliance can be demanded, one must believe in her own independence and her entitlement to freedom. Change necessitates, by its very nature, overwhelming effort and expansive thought. Revitalization requires large scale planning and direct action, unwavering conviction and the underlying sense that what we're doing is right. We must recapture the momentum, and this time, we cannot let it be taken away by ideologues, fear mongers and the greedy. Do not be fooled by success as you now know it. Define it for yourself, and strive towards it responsibly, as you once did.
Jesse Borg, June 2009
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