Our Next War

The subject of our contented happy life in the US at the expense of many in the world is one I have thought about quite a bit. I don't think we realize how much of our life styles are artificially supported by underlying inequities that cannot continue. I don't necessarily mean "inequity" in the sense of unjust, though in many cases, it is that, too. I mean mostly that there has been an inequity of the economic equation and that a balancing is inevitable. Also, when I say the inequities "cannot continue," I don't mean it as a manifesto to rise up give away all our goods, though that may be a noble reaction, I mean it more practically -- that it is inevitable and beyond our control.

Just this morning I saw a headline about a school system in Kansas that closed half of its schools in a last ditch effort to stay afloat. It frightened me. I think there is more of this to come. Our whole economic system is crumbling under its own weight of inflated wages and built-in assurances of security that we have paid for by ginning up our own isolated market and, now that we are having to compete globally, the rug is being pulled out from under us and the artificiality of the supports is becoming apparent. I wonder if I really shouldn’t move to India or at least to Ireland.

What scares me most is that even in a blog of friends, when I write about what appears to be inevitabilities to me, the response was in no instance about discussing whether it is or is not inevitable or whether my view of the economics might be incorrect. Rather the response was almost entirely an emotional fear response from a position of feeling threatened. The responses were either to rail against scapegoats like corporate CEOs for causing the situation and insinuating that those scapegoats need only be slaughtered for us to retain our good fortune or the response was one of blindly misinterpreting the issue as if I was demanding that we all voluntarily, out of some leftist philosophy, go out and give the world all of our money and take vows of poverty.

To me the whole effort was very revealing. It is not like this blog group to not be willing to discuss issues. If this group of friends could be so fearful and blinded and reactionary, what does that say about the country as a whole? This is the sort of thing that erupts in war. It makes me fear that more economic upheaval (which in my view is certain still to come) will eventually result in us looking outside this country for the scapegoats and going on the attack. If we do, it will sure to be under the guise of nation building or spreading democracy or defense of country but what it in fact will be will be aggression to defend our standard of living that we have been so spoiled to enjoy.

I remember on September 11, even at the very time I was watching the towers collapse live on TV, thinking, “The fear from this will cause us to strike out disproportionately,” and, “The fear from this is going to result in us stupidly surrendering some of our constitutional rights just so someone will protect us.” Both of those thoughts turned out to be correct. The fears I have now of us going to war over this economic collapse feels the like the same premonition.