Posts tagged collapse

America: Saved by a new renewed state of heart?

“The Federal Reserve seeks to get as high a level of material well-being as we can by setting a platform of stability.  We cannot pick and choose amongst various areas of the population because we just have no means of doing that.  If fiscal policy is lax or savings are exceptionally low, there is nothing any monetary policy or any central bank can do about that.  We cannot live in the present only.  Human beings cannot survive unless they create provision for the future.” -Alan Greenspan

I am not an economist, but from what I can tell, there are different groups of people in this country at present due to both personal choices and circumstances beyond their control:  one group that has fallen prey to financial instability already and cannot recover and are therefore homeless or on the brink, those who are living on the edge of being consumed by the present financial crisis and then those who have the means to weather this crisis for the foreseeable future.  

While this is a gross oversimplification of a very complex, desperate and alarmingly increasing problem, it still illustrates a general picture that a large portion of the American people were not prepared for a rainy day.  And whether the American people spent beyond their means out of survival or unabashed disregard for frugality and future planning, the bottom line is that as nation we bought into the lie of infinite growth and consumption without facing the realities of finite resources and living within our means.  Worst yet, is that we equated this way of life to the phrase “The American Dream” as if it were some imperial right versus exercising low-impact sustainable living.  As a relatively young country somewhere along the way we lost control and we are paying for it in triplicate-cubed at present and will continue well into future generations by virtue of the insanely large debt this country has amassed and is held by other countries.  (As an side, we will probably be faced with greater politically and economically compromising realities from which we probably won’t have a means of escape if we do not reverse our primary reliance on fossil fuels and decrease our indebtedness.)

Bottom line is that for a good chunk of the 20th century, Americans of the time got greedy and not enough of us thought about our future from a sustainable point of view, but lived only for the present time.  Looking to the future through the lens of paying close attention to what resources one presently has on hand, tends to or should regulate one’s attitude toward the amount one consumes.  Infinite growth, consumption, and population boom is not realistic and we are headed for a paradigm shift that we can either bring about gradually and bearably by choice (although with a limited window of time to fix our financial crisis and energy consumption) or we can ignore the signs altogether of a failing country and unwittingly find ourselves plunged into irrelevance and chaos, suddenly and without warning by doing nothing.

I think the most sickening aspect of resolving this problem is that the solutions are obvious but appear to be insurmountable because it requires the nation’s population to almost reverse entirely their beliefs, attitude and therefore their day-to-day lifestyle and behaviors for the sake of future generations—assuming however that the nations richest 1% don’t take advantage of the 99% and leave them locked into indebtedness and indentured servitude.  And whether we relent or forbear, history will thus show that in a America’s greatest time of need for self-reflection, repentance and change, that we will have looked at ourselves and truly pulled a 180 degree change in policy and lifestyle or at least tried, or that we continued to indulge in our addiction to instant gratification, treading our dignity, history and future under foot as the whole world watches history’s greatest flagship nation of hope, justice, compassion and inalienable rights vanish.

“We the people” as a country, engaged in an immoral act just as much as Wall Street did.  We bet against our future by investing only in the present, consuming more than we produce, even shaping our national policy around promises we cannot fiscally keep in the guise of saving for the future instead of making realistic changes that the country requires.  And by “we” I mean our nation’s leaders, and the American people (because of who we elect into office) and then there are the banks.  While Rome failed for many other compounding reasons, the greatest among them was a growing lack of fiscal responsibility as time went on.  We should know better.

Suffice it to say, I choose to be among those to point out that Wall Street does not carry all the blame, and the result of the banks’ actions were a symptom, a sign and a warning regarding wrong attitudes and poor choices about wealth on their behalf and to those that purchased toxic mortgages in the face of their respective financial predicaments.  Each and every American need but look into a mirror and recall all the choices that were made that ripple outward from within our personal lives through the dollars spent and not saved, the dollars hoarded and not given to those in need, and the dollars required back and not reasonably forgiven out of compassion.  To say that our personal choices have no impact on those around us is a fool’s myth, and to perpetuate this belief is flagrant authorship of America’s doom—a prophecy fabricated for a nation and carried out by it’s own people.

This crisis boils down to a changing of heart on our beliefs about the value of human life versus wealth (both material and monetary) or just plain generational selfishness.  The love of money (which figuratively and quite literally can refer to anything of material value) is indeed the root of this present evil.

Even if a benevolent hand vanquished our debt and gave us all a fresh start, it would only address the symptoms that were truly outer manifestations of an inner reality that needs to change.  Wake up America and look inside yourselves because that is where our change needs to begin, both as individuals and collectively.