I was laying in bed the other night, thinking about jury duty and the legal system, about the economy and the financial crisis. Echoing through my head, the words Financial Engineering and Political Process kept resonating; keeping me awake more than my head-cold. And it struck me, I don't believe in any of this crap. I can't call myself a progressive, or a liberal. I can't call myself a conservative, or a fascist either. Like chewing stale mental gum; all these isms, ments, ives and als just lost their flavor.
When in my hazy, nasal drip induced head-achey state, it seemed to me that the white LED on my sleeping laptop charging kept beating a thought deeper and deeper into my head. Almost all of the problems we worry about are imaginary, ALMOST all. FDR's ghost, however, kept repeating in my ear that key distinction. There are in fact 4 real problems:
- Food
- Shelter
- Health & Environment
- Self-Expression
All 4 of these problems are real, they exist independent of our collective imaginations. If we all stopped believing in the Free Market, it would simply cease to be; much like Poseidon or Innana, if you stop worshiping it it goes away. And as for the US Government, this latest crisis of confidence has the power to shift people's mindsets enough that they stop believing in that as well. This is what they fear more than anything else, all of the power would vanish if we all stop believing that the American Empire stretches from Sea to Shining Sea.
It struck me that policy makers worrying about deflation, had nothing to fear. Inflation is just a product of printing more money, and the Fed has demonstrated a willingness to simply print $10,000,000,000,000.00 to bail out the Banks and Wall Street. But talking to my cleaning ladies, they were shocked to learn that our money isn't backed by anything, that the value is only based on our collective fantasy that we will accept green pieces of paper in exchange for actual goods and services. For them, the illusion was a little weaker, and I found it ironic that I was handing them 3 practically worthless little pieces of paper, in exchange for them cleaning my apartment for 90 minutes.
Now I thought that when I woke up, this would all change. I would feel better, and the absurdity of modern existence would become more of a fevered memory. Life would continue, and I'd go to jury duty in the morning, and help see the system continue. I woke up, but the thought remained. I took the bus downtown, sat around the court house, and marveled at how utterly absurd the entire thing was. Here were men and women carrying guns, feeling self-important and smug, certain in their personal power to deny access to anyone who made a machine beep! Here were wave after wave of be-suited men and women of the court, who day after day repeated a set of largely meaningless rituals, certain that if they stopped society would collapse into mere-anarchy.
Across the street, in the holding center, like a euphemism makes it any less barbaric, various people who were unlucky enough to run afoul of the uniform wearing gun toting people, sat and waited for the ritual to begin. Most of them are either poor, uneducated, desperate, disenfranchised, or some combination of those, and totally incapable of grasping the immense collection of rules written down on paper by powerful, well-connected, wealthy men and women in far away places. And their only hope of evading further punishment at the hands of these uniformed men and women was a bunch of equally clueless, often manipulated, randomly selected people sitting in a room under threat of being punished themselves if they didn't show up and render some sort of verdict.
It all felt absurd, sitting there watching the ghosts on the TV cajole us to do our civic duty. First we were subjected to a grossly inaccurate presentation on the history of jury trials. And the refrain that our system was the best there is, or at least is better than throwing bound and gaged people into a lake, was repeated ad nauseam. All I could think is, sure anything is better than purely magical thought, but isn't that oath they're issuing to the jurors just a magical incantation? Isn't the belief that this system is the best their is just wishful thinking? Do we actually have any evidence that it is the best?
1% of our population, 1 in 100, is imprisoned right now in this country or ours. Every one of those people represented a failure of the legal system. If the punishment is to prevent crime, then every one of those in prison represent a failure of that system. If the purpose of the system is to keep our society functioning, then every one of those people represents a failure; as for those people our society isn't functioning. 3,000,000 people represent 10x the population of ICELAND, a country! That's 2/3rd the population of Norway! We are talking about a systemic failure for a population large enough to have its own seats in the UN. How utterly absurd is that?
And it call comes back to those 4 fundamental problems. Our system isn't the best there can be, and it isn't even the best there is! As Rush is so fond of saying "There I said it". Why I can't shake this feeling that the Economy, the Market, that the Government are all just grown-ups playing Make-Believe is because that's all they are. We act as if these things are real, but they're just delusions, and dangerous ones at that. People like Bill Maher are fond of stating that God doesn't exist, but what about these equally absurd institutions that we supposedly rely upon for our continued well being? Are they not just as imaginary as God, or Santa, or Poseidon?
Don't get me wrong, people who believe in these things do all sorts of horrible things in their name. In the sense that people believe in them, and will act upon those beliefs, they have real world effects. But belief in the existence of something, does not mean that the thing actually exists; especially when that thing is purely imaginary. A government is really just a bunch of people who believe in it badly enough to alter how they live their daily lives in order to conform to that belief. All the people dressing up in funny outfits, running around with guns, and writing rules on pieces of paper, all really do exist, but their rationale for why the should be doing these things is predicated upon a belief in something that only exists inside their heads.
- Food
- Shelter
- Health & Environment
- Self-Expression
That's what it is really about. Do you have enough to eat? Can you survive the winter? Is there poison in your drinking water and air? Can you express your inner demons enough to stay sane? Now as long as our imaginations don't get in the way of these 4 things, there's a lot that can be forgiven. But our imaginary institutions aren't working. That's what this economic crisis is about. That is what the outcry about torture is about. That is what global warming is about. That is what the foreclosure crisis is about. People can't get enough food to eat. People can't express their thoughts without fear of torture. People are getting sick off of polution, and can't afford to be cured. People are losing their homes, and are cast out into the cold of winter.
Now we waste a lot of time and mental energy on imaginary things, so much time in fact that we are failing to address the real problems. Every time we get caught up in arguing about which imaginary entity did what, or what bloviator on TV said what, we become part of the problem. Each time we excuse our own actions in maintaining imaginary things at the expense of real people, we become part of the problem. Whenever we shirk our own personal responsibilities, and engage in petty absurdist arguments about imaginary things, we only add to the problem.
What we all need to do is step back, breathe, laugh at it all, and find a new mentality. In the words of my favorite RUSH, one that is "Closer to the Heart". We need to make sure everyone has enough to eat. We need to ensure that everyone has a roof over their head, and heat to keep warm through the cold of winter. We need to heal the sick, and ensure no-one poisons our homes and waterways. And we need to give every man woman and child access to creative outlets and public forums to express their own voice.
Now I am heartened that Obama understands this, and is making great strides in shifting the inertia of our collective imaginations to address these issues. But we all need to do a better job at looking inside ourselves, and seeing what truly matters. We all need to cultivate a new appreciation for reality, and its problems. We need to let go of our childish ideas, and grow up.
We are at a rare moment in human history when it is within our power to solve the fundamental problem of survival for all people. A failure to do so is merely a failure of our collective imagination.