Fall mountains, just don’t fall on me
Huge, formerly respected companies are indicted on criminal charges.
A lying and evasive Catholic hierarchy.
A citizenry that routinely disbelieves what politicians and leaders tell them.
A stock market that can no longer be trusted.
A national cocoon of security that was forever destroyed on 9/11.
Our national social structures are crumbling and nothing has yet replaced them. Which helps explain the rise of fundamentalism, which says, in an insane world, listen to us, we have The Answer. Turn off your brain, bow in fealty to our belief system, then all will be revealed.
Joseph Campbell says we have no rituals left in our society, and that this is one important reason why we have youth violence. There are no moorings left, no signposts to guide the way, and that a society in such circumstances is in bad shape indeed.
There’s a weird convergence here. Loss of faith in religious, social, business, and governmental institutions is happening simultaneously. “Ancient Chinese curse: May you live in interesting times” seems relevant.
Maybe it’s the effects of global capitalism finally coming back to the States. At a leftie meeting recently, people were talking about the layoffs and pension fund crashes occurring as a result of corporate corruption. A man from Zaire said “The middle class in America is experiencing what Africans have experienced for hundreds of years”.
Mostly, our leaders seem out of touch, set in their ways, unable and unwilling to change. The Catholic hierarchy when not actively covering up the pedo-priest mess, does little but make unctuous noises about how it won’t happen again. Clueless. The Bush Administration, despite their bellicosity, have done little since 9/11 to prevent another attack except piss off the rest of the world. Clueless. CEOS’s, who were treated like rock stars not that long ago, now get to do the perp walk. Greedy pigs.
So who’s left to trust and look up to anymore? But Nature (and politics) abhors a vacuum. Something will move in to replace our imploding social order.
The question is, what? Comments?