Recession of 2008
With the nation embroiled in talk of recession - the media, investors, politicians - Americans seem desperate to avoid entering this dreaded state. Congress and the President rushed to pass a $100 billion + stimulus package. Pundits spin every day about whether or not we are in a recession, and what it would mean if we are. It is my sense that the obsession with recession reveals the dark side of the infamously optimistic American character. What is this desperate state that is so awful that we must try anything to avoid it, and that is so horrific that even if we are in it we had better not go about and acknowledge it?
It reminds me very much of someone in the early stages of a depression, when there is still opportunity for denial and distraction. It's like a depressed person who thinks he can put off depression if he can just go on enough ski vacations consecutively. All kinds of denial and avoidance are preferrable to looking the depression squarely in the face.
Perhaps, on the other hand, there is something ameliorative, or even healthy, about an occasional recession. I mean no disrespect to those who are truly hurting - losing their jobs or their homes. These people need our help and we as a country should assist them. But the hub-bub and paranoia seems to go far beyond these few.
Perhaps a recession is a good time to re-evaulate what we have done in the last frenzy of growth that did not work out so well. Perhaps a recession is a good time to re-evaluate our needs, our values, our priorities, perhaps to think about those non-material or less material rewards of life. Perhaps a recession is a good time to become more realistic about our capacity for production and consumption, to make a good hard accounting of how things stand. Perhaps a recession is a good time to re-evaluate our more speculative investments, and re-direct those investments towards opportunities that are sustainable and long-term.
The only thing in nature that grows and never prunes is a cancer. Healthy beings grow, mature, prune, retrench, and grow again. It would seem to me that what is good for nature might be good for our economy and our natures as well.
It reminds me very much of someone in the early stages of a depression, when there is still opportunity for denial and distraction. It's like a depressed person who thinks he can put off depression if he can just go on enough ski vacations consecutively. All kinds of denial and avoidance are preferrable to looking the depression squarely in the face.
Perhaps, on the other hand, there is something ameliorative, or even healthy, about an occasional recession. I mean no disrespect to those who are truly hurting - losing their jobs or their homes. These people need our help and we as a country should assist them. But the hub-bub and paranoia seems to go far beyond these few.
Perhaps a recession is a good time to re-evaulate what we have done in the last frenzy of growth that did not work out so well. Perhaps a recession is a good time to re-evaluate our needs, our values, our priorities, perhaps to think about those non-material or less material rewards of life. Perhaps a recession is a good time to become more realistic about our capacity for production and consumption, to make a good hard accounting of how things stand. Perhaps a recession is a good time to re-evaluate our more speculative investments, and re-direct those investments towards opportunities that are sustainable and long-term.
The only thing in nature that grows and never prunes is a cancer. Healthy beings grow, mature, prune, retrench, and grow again. It would seem to me that what is good for nature might be good for our economy and our natures as well.
Comments
Be warned, it's 3 1/2 hours long. Watch the end too. It offers some solutions. Not as much as I'd like, but some.