I talk a lot of shit. I talk shit about football and politics, having been professionally involved in neither. I guess this makes me, well...an asshole where these fields are concerned. Or at least a blowhard.
But people listen sometimes, and they ask me about the future of the country. Jesus, what poor sons O' bitches. But I tell 'em. I am short-term very pessimistic.
I also have a grasp of history, a bit of a geek for it, and some concern professionally with the substance of it. I call to mind a saying, and I can't even place the source (Voltaire?): history is full of the sound of silk slippers going down stairs, and wooden shoes going up.
If you haven't figured it out yet, we Americans are wearing the silk slippers, and we're heading down. We are heading down economically, and politically. Culturally? That's harder to gauge, as it is very subjective. But politically and economically, the stairs have turned into an escalator, and it is on a high-speed plunge.
I am reminded of Republican Rome, and the strife of that ancient time. A very corrupt Senate, tied closely to the interests of the most powerful land owners, screwed the small farmers, merchant class and finally the troops. Roman troops, swindled out of their land in their absence, off fighting imperial wars for more land and slaves for the same landowners who swindled them. Sound familiar? This led to political unrest, including the Tea Party-type political insurgencies of the time. People started showing up to rallies with weapons (like the town halls of the summer of health care), and this soon led to violence in the streets as skilled demagogues fueled the political fire of economic unfairness. We have seen a little of that already, stay tuned for the real action to come as the Beck and Limbaugh acolytes seek the Second Amendment solution to their frustrations.
If 2010 has taught us anything, it is that like later Republican Rome, wealthy elites control our government, for the most part. We're allowed an Elizabeth Warren here and there, but our senators and presidents are bought lock, stock and barrel. We have also realized, to increasing dismay, that there is no accountability for the powerful, just for us. Fraud, treason, murder, eavesdropping, torture, kidnapping, more torture...total pass. Smoke some weed? Read your wife's email? Jail for you mother fucker! Sure, Tom Delay was convicted, and may go to jail barring appeal. But how about all the Senators who are retiring to cash in with the corporations they have been shilling for these past decades? They gave the banks our money, and we lose our houses. They paid defense contractors on a lie, and our nephews, sons and daughters go off to die. And when they get back, they are in debt, have PTSD, and no job prospects.
We realize in 2010 that we have an ultra-right pro-corporate party, and a moderate-right pro-corporate party. There is no people's party on either side. We are feeling the frustration of limited prospects, opportunity and fairness. We feel the sting of our votes being meaningless, as both parties work against us. We fear for our kids' futures, that they will be less than ours. And to a degree they will be. My children will not have the same opportunities as I did. That is in part the swing of history, and part laziness on behalf of the American public - allowing our representatives to sell us out without a response from us. It's hard to kick a lot of ass in silk slippers, I guess.
Who's wearing the wooden shoes? China and India, to a large degree. These economic juggernauts will necessarily affect our standard of living as they flex their economic muscles in the global cage match for resources. When they happily are paying $10 per gallon for gas for 80 MPG cars that they build, and we can't for our 30 MPG cars that will soon be worthless, we will know how far down stairs we have fallen. Then, we'll probably put on some wooden shoes of our own.
In 2010, our life expectancy lowered for the first time in a long time. It was already behind other industrial nations', but that is still depressing. And our disparity between rich and poor is the highest it has been since right before the Great Depression. Our banks are insolvent, and propped up by made-up asset values, and over a trillion bucks from the Fed's printing press. We're heading for a disaster when the house of cards, which is our national banking system, collapses.
Yes, pessimistic in the short term. Long term? I think we've got it in us for at least a few more generations. Not, perhaps, as the world's sole super-power, but as a great and powerful country none the less. We, the people, still have a chance to take our government back. And, we have the chance to change our economy, although that will be a slower process, and require a government that is not under the boot-heel of the currently vested economic interests. It may be time for some constitutional conventions - started in the states - to address money in politics. We can do this if we don't despair, but put steel toes on those wooden shoes and begin the ass kicking.
And we must always step back and consider the scope of history, and where we are. Today, we live like emperors. We, the average schlep in the United States, live like only the most pampered kings and princes in history have. Even better. Think of how technological advances enhanced our lives. Clean water, that we can actually drink, that doesn't give us diarrhea, comes out of our taps. When we do shit, it's in a toilet, and we flush it away. These are mere dreams for most people, for most of human history. A grocery store? People coming to America from Russia in the 1980s would break down in tears when they would enter a Safeway.* Imagine what a Medieval peasant would do, or a Roman farmer for that matter.
*[By the way, Reagan ended the cold war? Fuck no, it was the realization that in America there were many kinds of sausage available at ANY grocery store, as opposed to waiting in line for hours in hope of getting A sausage. Communism couldn't deliver a sausage, that's why the Berlin wall fell.]
Most people in history were lucky to own two shirts. Most people in America, if asked how many they owned, couldn't answer. Most people in history had to work all day, every day, just to get enough calories to keep alive. Most people in America get way more calories than needed every day. Throughout history only the elite could read. Notwithstanding our standardized testing results, we are a broadly literate society. Add transportation and communication technologies, and we live lives that would make sultans green with envy.
We've got problems, and I'll continue to bitch about them ad nauseum. We have yet to see if the people will rise up and effect necessary change to keep our republic from going completely off the rails, and hold the powerful accountable; or if the powerful will move to crush the people, which is what largely happened in Republican Rome. But some year-end reflection on just how well the average American lives, compared to 99.9 percent of human history helps me swallow the disaster that was 2010.
Now, let's get out there and start the change. Primary the shit out of Obama. Primary NOW!
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