Bear Watching

Madame:

I have just returned from a short-notice trip to Panama, so this posting is not only a bit tardy, but will be unavoidably shorter (why am I not hearing any sighs? Lol).

There is a small flame near a whole lot of both kindling and dry wood.

I do not know if it will be blown out before it “catches,” but it has the potential to be a powerful movement for change.

Economic inequality.

Not the “normal” kind that results from differences in merit, hard work, intelligent application, and a bit of good fortune.

This is structural inequality, where economic opportunity is inhibited for most and accentuated for a relative few.

And increasing numbers in not just the country, but the world, are waking up to the seriousness of it:

“A wide range of social problems are worse in societies with bigger income differences.  These include physical and mental illness, violence, low math and literary scores among people, lower levels of trust and weaker community life, poor child well-being, more drug abuse, lower social mobility, and higher rates of imprisonment and teenage births.” Richard Wilkinson, professor emeritus, social epidemiology, University of Nottingham.

To make matters worse and self-accelerating (to this—perhaps!—tipping point),  the far greater wealth, power, and influence of the very wealthy have helped make the middle class feel less influential,more apathetic, and often even powerless, driving reduced voting and increasing apolitical behavior, leaving the “field” to the manipulators and the fringes.

But creeping into even the heavily wealth-influenced traditional media has been slowly growing numbers of individuals who have sounded the alarm. 

And that bears watching to see if a significant reaction, the possibility of which I mentioned in the last post, has begun.

We’ll see.  Maybe there’s more to the public’s interest in the Hunger Games, etc. than sheer entertainment!