Generally, I like to be correct. I like it a lot. I like
knowledge and info and thinking and synthesizing and concluding and basing my
opinions on the realities of science and human nature, and the hard, smart work
of trusted others. I don’t choose to retreat into cynicism, apathy, religious
platitudes, substance abuse, or other ostrich-like behaviors.
I wish in the case of the global economy that I could shake
off this feeling that I am correct in how I think things are going to go. But I
can’t. When there are problems – fundamental, intractable, entrenched – that
are difficult to comprehend in their size and scope, we often cannot understand
what is coming until it is too late and they are living in our own homes and the homes
of everyone we know. It is totally against my nature to be so grim; I am not a
fatalist nor ever without hope. But our world has become so unbalanced and
inequitable across such a broad swath of cultures and countries that it’s going to
take a long time to fix, and things are going to get worse before they can get
better.
Why? Physics, cycles, sustainability. What goes up must come
down, and greed unchecked for too long has consequences. A very small number of
men around the world have hoarded our resources, bought up our governments, and
still desire more, under the respectable cover of industry, development, and
trickle-down commerce. They play us for the fools we are by leading us into
division and rancor, promising us a bright future while dismantling any hope of
achieving it. They play upon our fears by demonizing the weakest members of
society, distracting us from who is really to blame. They play with our planet with no thought for its health, and with our lives, vampires who toss us
in a mass grave after they’ve taken everything they can from us.
The ships are going down, one by one, and the rats are
scrambling to survive by any means possible. As you drown, they will perch on
your head and berate you for causing the storm. They will swim to an off-shore
holding, and you will sink to the bottom of the sea.
Until the day comes when we ALL – all of us, with no
separate and ultimately meaningless factions of religious or political belief -- decide we don’t want rats
to determine our futures anymore, we remain leaden, sunken, helpless, and
unable to change our fates.
© Copyright 2008- Marianne Spellman