The Worm is Stirring

Here in NE, things are thawing out from a kind of so-so, mundane winter, not a lot of snow, not a lot of really bitter weather, just a lot of cold, grey days. But now, the temperature is creeping up and the days are reaching out a little longer. As a kind of automatic emotional reflex we want to believe that things indeed are getting better. We really want to believe.

Consequently, most people, whether they are from the left, the right or the middle politically, are still drinking the Kool Ade of the Kulture. “We’re Amreica!” “This is all going to blow over.” “The economy’s going to bounce back.” “Look, it’s already beginning to turn around.” Etc Ad Nauseum. To question this blind boosterism is tantamount to heresy. While none of the folks I talk to would claim to be believers in the tooth fairy, fakirs, magicians Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny, in fact, they DO! They are perfectly and placidly content to believe, almost unconditionally, in levitation. They are convinced that through the sheer force of their collective belief, they can ‘raise’ the economy. It may be the only collective thing they actually believe in. After all, there’s still a suspicious odor about anything that smacks of ‘community’ or ‘collective efforts’ in the mainstream media. Just remember the recent feeding frenzy of the right wing as they gnawed away at ‘socialism’. Obviously for many, the spectre of communism still evokes frightful nightmares of wandering Red zombie husks hoping to suck your neck. But even today, ‘collective’ is a word to avoid; it probably isn’t wise to point out ‘collective’ delusions.

So, back to the real as well as the economic weather: things do seem to be getting warmer that’s true, but, ‘better’ is damned relative don’t you think? For those folks who have lost their jobs and their unemployment benefits are running out, things certainly aren’t getting any better. There are fewer jobs available and there are more people chasing them. Not only that, as many economists, even those of the home-grown variety, have observed, the jobs that are available pay less and offer less in benefits and even less security. More and more highly educated and highly skilled people are working at low-paying, unsatisfying, no-benefits, no-future ‘jobs’. Moreover, many of them are getting those jobs through ‘temp agencies’ that take a slice of the $$$ from someone, the employer or the employee, and sometimes both, I suspect. In these times, planning and practicing a professional work trajectory, except for a handful of niche spots, like brain surgery, is almost an antiquated idea. Instead of the soft and fuzzy economy of ideas and services that we thought we would get, we have devolved back to a bloody-toothed economy.

I have three friends who are in the ‘contracting’ business. I know it’s a small and unscientific slice of reality, but bear with me. Two of them are construction guys, and one of them is in the landscape business. All of them report that there has been a lot of ‘interest’ lately. They say they have ‘been getting a lot of calls’. Lots of potential work is bubbling up it seems. Most of it is either rather small and very-limited, short-term sort of stuff, but there are a handful of very high-end, very costly, longer-term projects. My landscape contractor friend tells me that’s where all of his potential work will come from. The middle-class projects are all gone. For these ‘million dollar’ jobs the competition is something that resembles hand-to-hand combat, and the ‘clients’ can grind the price down to levels not seen for at least ten to fifteen years. To me this isn’t surprising, but it isn’t exactly a picture of a rosy economy. Right now there is a bit of chum in the water and all the fish are tasting it. Food on the table and all that. But it is axiomatic in this system that there are sharks too, and as they sense blood, they will winnow down the school of fish, efficiently, relentlessly, remorselessly.

Though this should be a time when all of us are pulling together and looking out for one another, our culture, our society, our ‘normal’ way of life, our economy is stirring us to practice just the opposite. A few of those are pushing for a kind of national ‘tough love’ policy. Some politician even suggested the other day that “people who don’t have jobs really don’t want to work.” I think it was some Republican representative from Texas. In our real world, not his obviously, there are fewer and fewer places at the grown-ups table now, and yet there are more mouths to feed. More and more of us are going to be subsisting on leftovers and scraps. It is predictable that most of us will be forced to go through more and more subservient contortions, emotional, psychological and social, just to get those. Already ‘employers’ are shaking down their ‘employees’ to give back ‘benefits’ they have ‘won’ over the past 60 years. If you think this is a scenario for future well-being and contentment, or progress and health, perhaps you should think again.

Even TIME magazine has recognized that the times they are changing. http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1971133_1971110_1971126,00.html
Well, it isn't just the youngsters that are making the necessary changes. Us oldsters may even have an edge on this trend. Anyway. It can now be said aloud: Resilience and relocalization are the new 'red menace'. Bolt your doors America!