Doom and Gloom Week continues! What really put me in a funk was reading "Terrorist" by John Updike. It's the kind of book that's so depressing because it's so true, much as I wish it weren't. In usual Updike fashion, none of the characters are paragons of virtue and goodness. They aren't really "likeable" in the way I discussed in a prior post. Actually the most likeable might be Ahmad, the "terrorist" of the book. Ahmad is 18, living in New Jersey, half-Egyptian/half-Irish American, his father disappeared when he was 3, and as a teenager he became deeply devoted to Islam and studying the Koran with a local imam.
The imam you know pretty much right off is trying to convert Ahmad into a terrorist. He's one of those hard-core "Death to America!" types. Ahmad's coworker and surrogate big brother Charlie is another one who's trying to convert him to the cause. Ahmad's mother is a whore to put it mildly. The black girl named Joryleen Ahmad went to high school with becomes an actual whore. Ahmad's former guidance counselor Mr. Levy is for most of the summer the one his mom is whoring around with.
So see what I mean about not being likeable? And yet no one in the book really thinks he/she is bad or evil or anything. The imam and Charlie are trying to help the glorious cause. Ahmad's mom paints weird pictures and considers herself an artist while her screwing around is meant to find someone to help taking care of her. Joryleen's whoring is just a temporary thing until she and "her man" get set up somewhere. Mr. Levy thinks he loves Ahmad's mom because she makes him feel young and useful again, unlike his fat wife.
The common theme to me is how everyone clings to this illusion that things are going to turn around. The holy war will be one. Paradise awaits on the other side. Ahmad's mom will find the right man eventually. Joryleen and her man will get set up to live the good life. Mr. Levy's fat wife goes on a diet and thinks this time it'll work. Besides the characters in the story there's also the secondhand furniture store where Ahmad and Charlie work, how these poor inner-city families scrape together a few bucks for a new table or chair or something thinking it will make their lives better.
That's an illusion fostered in large part by Madison Avenue. At a couple of points in the book Charlie talks to Ahmad about commercials. Like those Levitra ones from a few years ago. Do you remember those? Where some hot chick was talking about Levitra helping her man so they could get it on?
That's the kind of stuff I'm talking about. Buy this pill and you'll have great sex again! And this being the "season of giving" of course we're encouraged to spend spend spend to prove how much we love those around us. Because if you don't buy your kid that new XBox 360 game then you must hate him! Or real husbands pay a couple hundred bucks for a new diamond necklace for their wives, so what's the matter with you?
It's kind of sad when you think about it because we really are that shallow that we think buying stuff will really make things better, even when we can't afford to buy stuff. It's part of this delusional game we all like to play where we think, "Tomorrow is another day!" And "The sun will come up tomorrow!" When in reality after XMas you're going to be in even deeper shit because after buying all this nifty stuff you're in debt up to your eyeballs. Or you realize that magic pill might help your man get it up but it doesn't really make you love each other.
The other thought that struck me is the irony that for decades the commies kept saying how evil and soulless American capitalism is. Then after the Soviet Union crumbled, bin Laden and company took up the same call. For all those decades we rebuffed that shit, saying We're #1! But now we've got people "occupying" parks all over the country saying exactly the same thing, that capitalism is evil and soulless.
It's not that I agree with pointing hundreds of thousands of nukes at us or bombing us or killing our soldiers, but I think we're waking up to the fact that our enemies were right all along. We spend spend spend and where has it gotten us? All we've got to show for it are cities where people live in Third World conditions because capitalism picked up and left for China while Wall Street and its conservative allies screwed us all over. (And are continuing to screw us all over if you pay attention to what's going on in Greece and Italy.)
Yet like in the book we're still going to keep lying to ourselves. We're still going to think we have to spend spend spend this season. I mean, am I going to cancel my shiny new Kindle I can't really afford? Hell no! Because so many other people have an eReader I want one too, damn it! I can't blame Madison Avenue so much as my own need to keep up with the Joneses, so to speak. Will it make my life better? Probably not.
I think I'm losing focus here. Anyway, the depressing point is that we've become this nation of consumers because like in the book we think happiness is just around the corner, even if that's not bloody likely.
I for one do think that capitalism is rather heartless and soul-less. It's all about getting things and acquiring things that other people don't have. And there is also another part of that. In order to stay satisfied that you are better than someone, you need to make sure that they DON'T succeed. If everyone drove a Mercedes Benz...no one would want one. If everyone owned a mansion, no one would want one. The whole "soul" of capitalism is being able to flaunt things and feel better about owning them...whether it be material or whether it be a spouse, lover, etc. It's all about greed.
ReplyDeleteYou write, "The holy war will be one". I think you mean "won". The two words entirely change the context of the sentence (which is the only reason I even bring it up here).
We're screwed. I'm more sure of it than ever.
ReplyDeleteI saw the typo earlier, but I'm too lazy to go correct it. I think you're just paying me back for pointing out your Mission Impossible typo the other day.
ReplyDeleteBut that is a good point that if we were all successful then there would be no point to having a huge house or flashy car or anything. I think a lot of people then wouldn't bother buying Ferrari's or anything because really, when would you actually use it? It's not like you can take it grocery shopping or anything.
My first thought was to be flippant and remind everyone of what Daniel Tosh said: "Of course money buys happiness. Ever see a sad person on a Waverunner?"
ReplyDeleteBut in reality, I will take up the mantle of capitalism. Capitalism doesn't kill people, people kill people.
Sometimes objects really do make lives better. I love my Kindle, because I have my books in more convenient form and they're cheaper, so I can read more. Absent the Kindle, I would not have a subscription to "The New Yorker," which is one of the bright spots of my life.
The problem is when people think the OBJECT ITSELF will make things better, rather than the THING IT DOES. Objects don't help you be happy. Your life is what helps you be happy. I like to read, and especially "The New Yorker." The Kindle makes it easier for me to do that. It helped me achieve some happiness.
If you're pursuing things because others have them (or to keep others from having them) it's because you've never stopped to determine what might really make you happy.
When Sweetie and I were talking, six+ years ago, about whether to have another kid, we knew (for a variety of reasons) that it would be expensive; we also knew that we were getting to the point where the older kids were getting older and we might soon be in a position to have (relatively) lots of money and free time.
I cast the deciding vote in favor of having another kid (and accidentally having two) by pointing out that whenever I thought about it, I pictured a little boy sitting on the couch saying to me "How come you chose a Hawaiian vacation over me?"
THAT is prioritization. We had the two kids and we have gone on one vacation since then -- a cheap one, to Florida, where we used discount tickets and our in-laws' timeshare-- and I haven't bought new furniture since the twins were born; we drive cars that are 7 years' old at their newest and deer damaged. My newest suit is 4 years old and I bought it on sale at JCPenney's. My iPod and Kindle themselves are 3+ years old.
Yesterday, I met with a new client who had $500 that she could use to pay my advance fee or she could make a final payment to the Bank to try to save her house from foreclosure; but she NEEDED me to file papers today or it wouldn't matter if she made that payment. I asked her "Do you have the $500 to make the payment?" and she said "Not if I pay you."
I then said: "Make the $500 payment to the Bank. I'll trust you to pay me down the line. Let's save your house."
That might cost me in the long run, but it proves that you can be a capitalist pig lawyer with a fancy Kindle and a smartphone and still be a nice guy. I don't make "big bucks" like a lot of the lawyers. I'm comfortable; I won't deny that, but I'm not rich. And I won't be because I do things like that.
The #occupy protests aren't against capitalism; they're against greed. Capitalism is a great system in many respects, but it's a SYSTEM. Just like Windows is an operating system for a computer, capitalism is an OS for people. And just like you can use your Windows-based computer to defraud people or create malware, you can use capitalism to package crooked loans made at the expense of little people and get rich off of it.
America would be just fine if people stopped being greedy and started focusing on what's important in life, and simply started paying attention. The Occupy protests are about that -- or, properly, should be. We shouldn't scrap capitalism. We should just be better people.
Ha, that reminds me of on a message board someone's simplistic solution to abortion was people just not having unprotected sex. Well yeah, in Fairytale World that can actually happen. In the real world people have sex. And in the real world people are greedy.
ReplyDeleteCapitalism more so than other systems rewards greed. The more you cut costs while maintaining revenue, the more profit you make. Thus where's my motivation to keep jobs in America or give people health benefits when I can ship those jobs to China for $1/hour where they work 16 hours shifts with no health care or retirement or anything? Sure if I'm a good guy I'd do that, but if I'm a good guy A)I probably would never make it to CEO and B)The Board would fire my ass for not giving them enough of a dividend. Thus I'm encouraged to be as greedy as possible to maximize dividends and save my own ass.
And consumers are a part of it too. Do I want to pay $5 more for the waffle iron made in the USA by union workers with good benefits? Fuck no. I'd rather save the $5, buy the Chinese one, and use the savings to go buy a hamburger at Wendy's.
The thing is, though, communism didn't work because people were still greedy. Because really, why am I busting my ass in the factory when some other jerk gets to sit around in some cushy job pushing paper around?
And even if you outlawed currency of any kind, people would still be greedy. Even in caveman times they were still greedy, asking in caveman language, Why does that guy have a sabertooth tiger rug in his cave and I got just plain old rock? I got to get me one of those!
Really the Christian idea of "Original Sin" was greed. God had all the knowledge and power and we wanted it, so Adam and Eve ate the freaking apple and screwed us all.
Or as Yoda might say, "Envy leads to greed, greed leads to hate, hate leads to the dark side."
@Briane: Winston Churchill said, "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings." Yes, the occupy protests are against greed. But to separate them is to go against the very nature of what capitalism is.
ReplyDeleteAllow me to explain further by illustrating an example from a meeting we recently had at the governor's office. At this meeting, I saw a video where Mr. Friedman spoke to other governors in the union about his new book. He started with an example of how China is kicking our ass in the market today. He said that in the same amount of time that it takes the Chinese to erect a building with all the modern conveniences, America fails to fix an escalator in a subway. The point of us watching this was to "step up" and "improve our game" because THAT is our competition for jobs...that is what America is up against.
I brought up a point in that meeting and that is I do not feel that it is fair to admire the Chinese for their organizational successes and completely dismiss the one component that makes that possible: A tyrannical government ripe with human rights abuses.
So for you to separate "greed" from "capitalism" is doing the same thing. The very nature of capitalism is greed and greed is basically defined in acquiring material goods that are not available to everyone. Flaunting sub-zero appliances, having a chauffeur, being the next Kim Kardashian. Sure...there are plenty of good capitalists out there like yourself that are a stellar example of a great citizen.
However...for every one of you...for every one of the Warren Buffetts out there...there is a bad apple. And those bad apples are powerful. And they could give a shit about people. They're job killers (a bit borrowed from Mr. Friedman's speech). One guy that Mr. Friedman spoke about was responsible single-handedly for destroying 100,000 jobs.
We are moving into a time period where more so than ever, a person is not entitled to happiness. Perhaps you never were. The mottos of our country say that you are entitled to the pursuit of happiness. But I believe it is getting to the point where you must choose, in that pursuit, to curtail someone else's happiness or you will never EVER achieve a level of happiness yourself.
I'm an atheist so this is the last source I really want to borrow from, HOWEVER, I'm going to do it because there is truth in this saying.
The Holy Bible says that, "The LOVE of money is the root of all evil." I think this is true. You say people kill people. Well yes. But all sorts of things kill people. However, there are plenty of examples where people will kill people over a buck. How much is human life worth? I suggest you use your lawyer witchcraft and check in on state statutes (Idaho for one) that in their worker's compensation code identify the payout for a Whole Person. Yes...identified by law...the complete payout of what a person is worth when he/she is killed on the job. I like to think of it as driving by at 65 mph and throwing a check out the window. "Here's what your spouse was worth. Sorry they died...late for Kim's wedding on E...byeeeeee."
Wasn't there an infamous Ford memo about the cost to fix defective Pintos being greater than the potential cost of lawsuits from people they might kill, hence why they didn't bother fixing them? There's the bad apples at work.
ReplyDeleteOr just think about cigarette companies (like in "Thank You For Smoking") that knew for years how deadly their product was but tried to stonewall any legislation that would make them responsible.
As for China, if you remember the lead paint toy fiasco from a couple years ago, their safety standards are basically like ours from the 1890s, before Teddy Roosevelt started to clean things up. That certainly helps them get things done faster and cheaper.