Quibbles and Bits

Madame M:

Actually, perhaps that’s a bit of a mistitle, as you have assessed the situation quite well, and although I might wonder at the completeness of some facets, I cannot disagree nor do I want to.  No Labels does look like a great place to start, and start we certainly need to do, especially in this, as you say, polarized environment.

I would add, however, that No Labels will achieve more if it also includes a constitutional amendment to repeal Citizens United (and a related decision whose name escapes me at the moment) as well.   Trying to do anything else while not doing that is like trying to swim upstream just three feet away from the water going over the waterfall.  The money streams just tilt things too much otherwise, especially when factoring all the other things the plutocrats have at their disposal, a corporate media being one of them.

World War Z is a wonderfully written piece of fiction that at the same time holds considerable social commentary and insight.  Madame will be interested to find that the author (who is Mel Brooks’ son), says we all need to get some real skills to use.  In the aftermath of deep trauma as laid out in the story, what was valuable, and needed, changed radically.  The chief of national resources was told to focus efforts on relevant things, for we were in the fight of our existence, one that made the previous existence seem so illusory.  His top-priority agency was “tasked with infusing these sedentary, overeducated, desk-bound, cubicle mice with the knowledge necessary to make it on their own.” (WWZ, p. 139, which discusses something called the Community Self-Sustainment Program and National Re-education Act).  What kind of things and skills were stressed?  Small gardens for every family, repairing any appliances, and much else.  Breaking our comfortable, disposable, consumer lifestyle. Going to local economic systems, where people see the fruits of their labor.  

Just like you’ve been saying for some time!

Doing those things might also go a fair ways toward addressing one of the great reasons behind the painful dissatisfaction with life, address the sad fact that few die to this mortal life with a contented smile on their face.  It is not just that people die not fulfilling any of the main things they wanted to do or become—itself tragedy enough—but they know they will die without passing on anywhere near the bulk of the knowledge, experience, and wisdom they have accumulated.  This is the generational angst, the true depression.   We do not value the knowledge, wisdom, and experience of our elders remotely enough.

And even the wanderers want to find a home.  We like to beat our chests and say how “individual” and “independent” we are, and there is a little to be said for that.  But the further we have disconnected, the worse things have become.  We long for connection, to be part of a community, to (turning Vance Packard on his head) be A Nation of Neighbors.  Ones that talk with each other.  Care about each other.  Learn from each other. Even socialize with each other.

To paraphrase Martin Luther King: We have a dream.

I thought about this while hearing yet another wealthy person saying how “self-reliant” they were, how they had achieved it all “on their own.”  Leaving aside how much the societal infrastructure, laws,  etc. provide necessary benefit and assistance, I will merely point out that self-reliance is easy when you’re in a gated community.  And if the person was true to his words about “self-reliance,” he wouldn’t be giving his kids help, paying for any of their education, arranging contacts and connections, etc.  Unless he interpreted “self-reliance” to mean family self-reliance.  But that sort of interpretation could just as easily justify the Borgias and a thousand other extended families who have visited misery upon humanity in the pursuit of power, wealth, and privilege for themselves.

Just advance warning for our readers.  Next week’s post from me will occur on Monday, not Sunday.