By Judith Gayle | Political Waves
America needs a new dream. The old one, based on ownership and standard of living, is more elusive than ever these days, perhaps even obsolete. Learning to live without our cornerstone mythology — that each succeeding generation does better than the last — is taking its toll on our mental and emotional health. I think of it as necessary growth, and yes, it’s painful. The isolation most people feel, trying to balance their obligations against their dwindling paycheck, is a heavy burden. If we had invested more in community, we might have somewhere to turn now that ‘stuff’ is going by the wayside and safety nets are failing. If we felt as if we were a big American neighborhood, all pulling together, perhaps we’d be less cynical about topics like health care reform and reasonable taxation, less preoccupied with notions of debt and deficit in the face of so much public loss and suffering.
I don’t think this nation set out to institutionalize greed, but it’s a human failing to fall into the “gimme” trap. We had already lost our way when we enshrined the notion that the one with the most toys wins and we embraced the Gordon Gekko mantra, “Greed is good.” Balance is required between wanting and having, between taking and giving. Those born to wealth are surrounded by the ambitious who are looking to become the next founder of a financial dynasty, but only some of us are prepared to swim with the sharks on Wall Street and compete for the golden rings of financial excess. Not all of us want to live like royalty, even though we have a romanticized relationship with the possibility. Unfortunately, those who do are willing to sacrifice anything or anyone upon that altar. Look around you and you’ll find the ramifications of that kind of thinking. All around us are reflections of plenty gone amok.
Then there’s the other end of the spectrum. Although we’re being told that the Great Recession is over, there are 14.5 million unemployed men and women in this nation. That doesn’t count the under-employed, those working several jobs to equal the decent job that disappeared earlier in the decade, or the “missing workers” — some 4.4 million who don’t show up in the statistics, unable to qualify for help or find work. I count friends and family in this last demographic and I can testify that their dilemma keeps me awake at night. None of us, no matter how personally secure, exists in a vacuum.
Even the hardest heart should be moved by the plight of our needy citizens, but alas, it isn’t so. Some of us turn our heads and rationalize our emotions, whittling them down until they could fit in a tea cup. We tell ourselves nationalistic myths about the founders pulling themselves up by their bootstraps, about a lazy, drug-addled low-life working class, and eventually we comfort ourselves with another maxim — made famous in the film, The Godfather — that some of us accept without question: it’s not personal, it’s just business.
It’s just business if good American jobs go overseas to more competitive labor markets. It’s just business when we slash domestic programs to the bone while making sure the rich get their tax break. It isn’t personal when the banksters foreclose on our homes in staggering numbers, although they themselves promoted the bogus loans that lured us into purchasing. The millions lost by trusting investors didn’t impinge on J.P. Morgan’s business model as they continued to throw money at Bernie Madoff, even while suspecting Bernie of running a Ponzi, because, well — it was just business.
Ultimately, it’s business that drives us, nationally, to embrace and support dictators like Mubarak in order to prop up our imperialism and, in Egypt’s case, pacify Israel and ensure steady oil transport via the Suez Canal. How might changes affect us? According to financial analysts, a 10 percent rise in the price of oil that lasts as long as a year would cost the American economy more than a quarter million jobs. Like it or not, our system is so dependent on business concerns, our economy so entangled in a worldwide system of payoff and manipulation, that the nation itself has become a virtual corporate entity.
Of course, that’s not how we think of ourselves, nor how we see the world. We personalize these things because it’s our nature; it also protects us from thinking the worst of ourselves and makes it easier to demonize and finger-point than to accept responsibility for political and economic concerns that few of us understand. Coming to grips with who we actually are, instead of who we THINK we are, is a big project.
Most Americans just want to do the right thing and hope that common sense will prevail. This poll suggests that we know what’s in our best interests and are able to make pragmatic (domestic and foreign) decisions about the national budget. Despite rumors, we’re not shirkers or freeloaders, we want satisfying work and the self-esteem that comes with pulling our own weight. Still, the system is not our friend. Even when the economy was stable, the average American made no income gains. The last decade has been called a ‘lost decade’ for the working class, and it compounds prior decades that saw only marginal advance.
Perhaps we need to rethink what is truly the right thing to do when the system is gamed against us like this. I read an interesting piece on foreclosure the other day that highlighted the moral questions of walking away from underwater debt; if you have thought about doing something like that, you might want the reference. Almost a quarter of homeowners now have a house payment greater than their house is currently worth, an amount increasingly difficult to pay. This is complicated by our personalization of “home” as opposed to, say, income property. We aren’t able to utilize the “it ain’t personal” guidelines when we talk about the old homestead, and too often such thoughts are a salvo aimed at our self-worth, our feelings about what “good” people would do. Only deadbeats would walk away from their obligations, right? Yet I promise you, honoring debt is no longer a priority at the political or business class level. We need to rethink our own moral as well as financial obligations.
Ultimately, the answers we decide upon could change everything in this country. Nothing can change unless we’re willing to think outside the box; nothing will shift until we open ourselves to see things differently and act. They know that in Cairo. They finally had enough of unresponsive government, unemployment, high food prices and glaring inequality. And would it surprise you to know that here in the US of A we suffer larger socioeconomic inequality than Tunisia, Yemen or Egypt? Could it be that we need a democratic movement of our own?
We spend too much time in our heads, too little in our hearts, but it seems that lately everything is calculated to make us feel, even when we don’t want to. Everything’s changing and, believe it or not, that’s a reflection of our own internal growth. As the old passes away, we need to rethink the right thing to do. We may be surprised what our heart has to say.
Yes, on many levels, America has turned out to be a great disappointment to the world. Rather than focus on the great freedoms dreamed it espouses, it chose instead to slavishly embrace the path of greed – a condition Alexis de Tocqueville described nealy 200 years ago in his work ‘Democracy in America’. Come on America – time to grow up – the party’s over, the place is trashed – time to tidy up after yourselves, and get some responsibility. Classic case of a self-indulgent, narcissistic rampant Venus – turn away America, from the money-grubbing, wealth-at-any-cost path, and work that other, glorious side of Venus, and become that thing we know you aspire to be: America The Beautiful…
As to that house plan, tou have to see past the trailer trash aspect. LOL. I see endless possibilities for the house AND the garden, maybe a little less plastic and more built in cabinets.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJsDOD0dTQI&feature=related
How to have a home with no house payments and no utility bills.
This is a very intereseting video, anyone can tweak the plans to suit the family needs. Have to check with your local ordinance – in my area you have to have so many square feet to build, and a home can’t sit on concrete blocks – but other than that, this is a very doable plan. The selling point is to not be a slave to a mortgage and utilities for the rest of your life. Financial freedom makes it possible to focus energy on things that matter.
Very nice article Jude!
..I still find it wack that there’s an industry built up around eliminating dandelions?!? Other than the ‘weed’ being totally medicinal (liver/blood helper), the greens are nutritious as all %@$*! And,.. the herbicides are down right toxic to every bio-thing!
Where some folk see weeds, I see a nice tasty salad! (A good portion of peoples front yards in N. central California is edible! I can walk the neighborhoods and stuff myself.)
Smiles,
Jere
Jere — I am country mouse, hear me squeak! Yes, you’re absolutely right. We need to reconnect to our food source, our ability to do for ourselves and manage our basic essentials. At the moment, under a foot of snow with country roads unplowed, folks here have been hunkered down for almost a week and most of them are managing well. They know what to do and how; we need to remember how that works and invest ourselves in bringing that dynamic up to speed in a new paradigm. We’ve painted ourselves into a corner with our credit cards. Time to dig out.
Thank you, Fe — hug, hug. And VERY apt analogy, BE … thanks for sharing that with us. I love a good analogy, just makes everything so much easier to understand.
I’ll be posting on the anxiety issues on Judes Here sometime this weekend, ‘edgewise; we’re all feeling them. The trick is to move through fears like shadows, which is not to say they don’t … sometimes … rattle our teeth with their intensity.
“..democratic movement of our own.” Yes, our OWN. This is where each individual is to wake up to what they contribute to: the energy one expends in keeping the system operating at status quo. The modus operandi must fail. It will be harsh. Most folks are used to Wall-mart, many pay their bills through their energetic concessions to the “mart”.
It’s not enough to cease contributing to the mega-corps. We can’t all stop what we’re doing and run through the streets screaming “revolution!”. We’d starve. But, we do need to grow up a bit and accept some self responsibility, the way our homesteading fore-parents, and every other immigrant has throughout time immemorial.
Home IS where the heart is, not some pre-fab structure designed to isolate one within their own fears.
Get out, trade, give, share, sell,.. money is a resource: a conduit, NOT a god. And, energy is energy.. value manifests through perception. The green in your garden is far more valuable than the green in your wallet.. (that will definitely be a harsh one for most folk when they’re paying astronomical fees for their staples. Of course it’s avoidable for a good chunk of us who know our greenery.. the good greenery.)
I think the movement, not just in the U.S. but globally, won’t be so overtly extreme as the case is in N. Africa (our despots are more subtle). What we need is to get our hands ‘soiled’, our communication channels open, and a good dose of “I’ll take the responsibility of configuring my life. I accept the help, only if it’s helpful. If not, I won’t play with you.”
..it’s on the tip.. I can FEEL it.. (I’m on a non-participatory trip now while I work to pick up the pieces of my head. We need models to flesh out the ideas of sustainability. As soon as I get my heart together, it’s on.)
Peace all,
Jere
This has been an intensely slow decade in terms of shaking off old “pain” — yet that is because it cannot be shaken off prior to being identified.
I wake every morning with more intense “anxiety” than ever before, every limb, every muscle tense and shaking – my process for months now has been to ask “what is it I need to know”.
This has been enlightening beyond words – although ultimately I have to find the words to express the FEELINGS in order to apply and remind and remember – so that I can move onto the next “pain” that needs releasing.
I don’t suppose Chyron on Natal Sun and transing sun just passing over Natal Chryon simultaniously has been augmenting this process at all……haha.
Loads of love and thanks for the message Jude – and Be for your thoughtful addition.
Judith,
I always admire your writing and your perception, but it wasn’t until I read your last paragraph that I decided I would reply. Growing up CAN be painful. Learning that it (life) isn’t all play and no pay is not just disappointing, it can seem downright cruel.
Being forced to experience that is the equivalent of a toddler being forced to do something like go to his room after doing something immature. Being forced to be alone will usually put us in contact with our own feelings eventually. At least it worked a century ago. Parents would wait a significant amount of time before talking to the child about the misdeed, and most kids were willing to listen, knowing it was the only way to rejoin the others. Some kids would learn after the first experience of this, but most would have to go to their room several times during their growing up years in order to ingrain the learning experience.
Too many of us have missed out on this learning; that selfish and mean and arrogant are not admirable, but kindness, generosity and humbleness are. That these characteristics are not so much tangible yet still have enormous value are not always a child’s natural understanding, and most parents will attest to this.
Our country is going through a Saturn return and it’s Jupiter is stymied by a transit from Pluto which promises some time alone in the bedroom. Time well spent in sorting out what’s good and bad, what’s fair and not fair, what hurts and what feels good. Time to re-think. When it’s appropriate, the door will open again and we will be (hopefully) wiser and just plain nicer to be around.
be
Jude:
You have written exactly what the small voice–the one that operates inside you and knows what’s right, is saying to so many of us who already understand that we need to move forward and change. Well done, my dear.