There’s something in me that, since I was a very small child, has rebelled against the idea of joining in with the crowd. I don’t think my logic follows the oft-quoted Groucho Marx “I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member,” either. My tendency isn’t self-deprecating, but suspicious. Any club should be thankful to have me as a member. But actually join one? I would prefer not to.
My naysaying streak extends from small rebellions, such as “I’m going to wear jeans on Thursday not casual Friday” to “religion is silly.” I can take it even further, mercilessly criticizing those who have the gall to impose their sheepish beliefs on the populace. This is something I’ve gotten flak for recently, and while I invite anyone who feels “sick for two days” after reading my blog to kindly never log on again, it has also made me consider that maybe I could stand to be a tad more generous. After all, if Jesus Christ did return to earth, there’s no sense in my standing around making fun of the holes in his hands. “Who does this guy think he is? Hey, buddy, what’s with the Birkenstocks….”
I certainly am not proud to be an American, these days, but I have to say: I’m not willing to drop out and stop paying taxes, either. I like my libraries, my paved roads. My (lipservice?) freedom to worship what I will or won’t. Above all, I like that I can keep to myself–a right that I preserved by moving to the least populated state of the nation.
I wonder if the world’s financial markets would’ve been as hard hit if the rest of the developed world had chosen, instead of following the (U.S.A.) leader, to write their own economic rules. To break out from the fold–creating their own market models. As is, we have no safety in numbers at all, only a monster credit nightmare that may not go away in my lifetime.
While it’s a bit officious to justify my cutting sarcasm by saying “if we all walked to the beat of our own drums, none of this would’ve happened” it does seem to be a tiny bit true. Maybe I don’t need to cut so deeply, but honesty doesn’t always feel good. We’re broke and we’re getting broker. We’re religious and getting religious-er. Coincidence?
It’s my truth: cruel, neurotic and unpatriotic though it may be.
Greed has been the engine that drove our economic car off the road. There remains a reckless, greed is good, mentality that spurs those with some advantage to make the majority suffer. For me the problem has always been Adam Smith, or Karl Marx. A free market gets used by the rich and famous just like uncle Karl said it would. Sharing everything with everyone has not materialized in any form in any nation yet, so what is the answer? Ralph Nader had it once, and has outlived his impact.
Suspicion is a good thing at all times. As the Soviets were fond of saying, just because I am paranoid, doesn’t mean they are not out to get me. New Yorkers are raised to suspect every deal and look at Mother Theresa with a “what’s in it for you?” look. Perhaps we need input from all the suspicious people before we allow anything to be deregulated. The problem here is who will be the regulators?