Quick Fix: junkie-USA's wet dream

We’re all junkies! Let’s Face It: GWB has managed to get all of us running around like crazed crack-heads. I guess it’s actually what we should expect when there’s a not-so-ex-junkie in charge of the stash. And talk about enablers: now he’s got an entire Congress and most of the corporations agreeing to help and all of us are sitting around like nodding bobble-heads helping him satisfy his/our habit. But that’s his MO: GWB has always found someone to bail him out of his messes, and now he’s got an entire country that seems to be willing to do it. The truth is we’re not addressing the addiction and the result of all of this will be every bit as successful as Brittany’s repeated forays into rehab.

The ugly reality is that there is a sort of harmonic convergence or symmetry between our national obsession with pharmaceuticals and the state of the economy. Yeah, it may be a stretch but bear with me. We are a junkie nation. We are fascinated and mesmerized by addictions. For instance, just look at the national media wigging out about whether or not Roger Clemens took steroids or ‘performance enhancing drugs’. How about you? Does it matter to you if this overweight, poorly shaved 40-year-old-child blow-hard ingested ‘illegal substances’ to ‘enhance’ his ‘performance’? Hey, I mean it. Do you really give a shit? What if he took Viagra? You know, Bob Dole’s medication of choice. It’s a legal substance that is supposed to enhance your performance, or, for many men apparently, to actually render them capable of performing at all. In other words, it’s a kind of chemical blowjob; it elevates your mood as well as your tool. But seriously, what difference does it make if ‘the Rocket’ used a form of medicinal ‘rock’ to make his rocket rock it? Is it important in any way to your life? Probably not, BUT do you not see the synergistic, unholy similarity of Clemens situation to what is going on the national economy? We have an artificial economy, one that is pumped up, over-weight, unkempt, belligerent and boorish. All of us have been lured into watching it play out and George Bush, like RC, an old Texan, as well as a baseball freak, has fooled all of us. He has not only tricked the entire nation into a narcotic haze, at the same time he has put all of us in hock. And now what does he do? He offers to bail us out. And what does he offer: a free ‘sample’ of cut-rate monetary Viagra.

The rest of the world knows the stench of a junkie when they smell one, but they have been enablers too. But now they’re worried that their rich coked out buddy may not be quite as flush as he seemed. In a rather poorly designed three-step dance, Dubba, the Congress and the media have tried to pretend we don’t actually smell as bad as we do. After all, we still swagger well. And they will pull it off to some extent since they’re all part of the same ‘reality show’: American Idle. Even now as this entire fiasco is becoming front and center they are trying to make sure that we get lost in circuses and sideshows.

Instead of actually addressing the systemic dysfunctions, they’re offering a cheapo ‘economic stimulus’. None of the embedded and potentially ruinous aspects of how our economic and financial structures currently work are being addressed at all in this climate of panic. Everyone seems to accept the old bromide that ‘the fundamentals of the economy are sound and strong’. BUT why is no one actually questioning that assumption? What are ‘the fundamentals’ anyway? Instead of trying to deal with that question, The Fed, the Bush ‘Administration’ and the Congress are going to stroke us all into a low-grade, temporary monetary hard-on to boost the ‘economy’. Why? Because they don’t know what else to do and it makes them look like they actually care. And sure, it may provide the ‘stimulus’ for a quickie, a sort of early afternoon roll in the hay, but it doesn’t address the lingering problem of inability to perform.

The entire approach of the Feds, from the Prez to the Congress is based on accepting the current economic and financial structures. They are merely making up the idea that ‘the fundamentals are sound’. Instead of a real diagnosis and real medicine, they are hawking a magic elixir that they claim will cure all of our ills. And what is that patent medicine: Tickle the fancy of consumer spending into a frenzy. The proposed $600 per taxpayer (down from $800) handout is supposed to propel all of us out of our soon-to-gobbled-up-by-foreclosure homes and into the shopping malls so we can swoop up the ‘tax rebate specials’ at the nearest Wal-Mart or Best Buy. Do they actually believe this is going to stimulate the ‘economy’? Do they think it will have an unending orgasm or something?

Trying to prop up the old ‘economy’, i.e., the system that exists right now, is a waste of money and energy. It’s like trying to convince us that Elizabeth Taylor is a sultry and svelte 20-something.....sorry it’s the best I could do. Not even the best make-up artist and lighting specialist can change reality forever. And in their heart of hearts they know it really won’t work; at least I hope they’re smart enough to realize that. When the ‘economy’ really fails, not necessarily right now but in a couple of decades, maybe then the USofA will do the right thing. Of course it will probably be too late by then; by then the Indians and Chinese will own us. That decade-away or so collapse is going to provoke an angry, perhaps violent response from the ordinary citizens in the USofA. When they realize that not only have their hopes been dashed, but that they have been deliberately and callously lied to and exploited, they are going to be thoroughly pissed. At least I hope so.

To repeat: All of the major remedies that have been proposed by the federal government so far are based on accepting the proposition that things as they are currently constituted should remain in place. There is no understanding that the world has shifted; things are not as they were 20 or 30 or 50 years ago. We are no longer numero uno in everything, everywhere. In fact, except for the size of our turgid and bloated military, we’re not number one in anything any where any more. Our failure as a society and as a nation to grasp this reality is a HUGE blunder. It is clear that if we continue to follow the path we have chosen it will bring a catastrophic, if slow and exquisitely painful financial and cultural collapse of the United States. A great many people believe that collapse is already well underway. And when it happens, The Collapse will engulf not only the US, but essentially all of the other nations of the world as well. Googa gajube.

A bold global vision of fair and equitable capitalism within a sustainable 'economic system' coupled with focused actions, which involved tangible projects, could not only reverse this trend toward world-wide entropy and the unraveling of what we consider to be civilization, it could also lift the spirits and energies of peoples and governments everywhere. If the USofA was to launch an environmental reparations and renewal program that invested in real, on-the-ground projects, it would engage and enlist the hearts, minds and energies of the global community. As a nation we would not only regain our moral standing in the world, we could begin to lead on a practical level as well. If the US were to call clearly, unselfishly and unequivocally not only for an international effort to reverse global climate change, while actually launching one here at home we would regain much of our moral and financial standing in the world. If we were to push for collaborative and realistic efforts to promote a sustainable way of living on this planet, other nations in the world would probably follow us, BUT ONLY if we demonstrated clear and unselfish commitment by taking and maintaining progress toward that goal. This would involve not only a leap of faith on our part, but a resilient investment of trust in others on our part. And though many ‘conservatives’ would disagree, it is up to us, the USofA to show good faith first and to continue to show it despite the ‘failings’ of other ‘nation states’ every now and then.

As long as predatory, self-righteous, uncontrolled capitalism remains our SOP, even our religion, we cannot hope to regain our moral footing or our economic footing. Without a new vision we cannot hope to be anything but an addicted and addled nation lurching from ‘quick fix’ to ‘quick fix’.