Thoughts on peace.
With the conflict heating up between Hamas and Israel, and the world economy doing a swan dive into an empty swimming pool, this new year is looking pretty scary. Things seem to be getting worse. I wonder if that's an illusion, or if the entropy of chaos is the grim reality of modern life. One thing I do believe is that people can change. Maybe we can't change the fundamental core of who we are, but I do believe we can change our behavior.
American "consumers," (can we think of a more demeaning name for ourselves?) can learn to wean ourselves off consumer credit. Spending too much money is only half our problem. We spend money before we have it. Rather than save up for the next cashmere sweater, or Caribbean vacation, we indulge ourselves now and pay later. Except we rack up so many indulgences at such a terrific rate, we end up reaching a point of crisis in our financial lives: face bankruptcy, or change the way we think about money. This tendency isn't unlike the behavior of wall street, which spent years creating money out of nothing, disguising bad investments and then selling those investments in increasingly elaborate packaging so that no one recognized what they were buying. Even the savviest investors ended up paying high dollar for worthless investments, many of them mortgage securities that, if they hadn't been so elaborately disguised, could have been recognized as worthless up front. The "wizards" who perpetrated this fraud wanted fast, easy money. And they got it. For a while. Now, as a nation, wall street and main street alike are having to metaphorically cut up our credit cards and hope like hell we still have a job tomorrow.
Is this so different from the cycle of violence that seems to grip the middle east, among other areas? Is it so different from America's tendency to invade first and ask questions later? Just like Mr. and Mrs. Public have to take some scissors to their credit cards, it's high time governments and terrorist organizations alike poured some sugar in the gas tanks of their war machines. So many people want to erase Israel from the map, and they're willing to blow themselves up along with a lot of other people in pursuit of this dream. They don't seem interested in asking themselves if their goal is even possible. I've got news for them: it's not. Israel isn't going anywhere. All the terrorists are succeeding in doing is hurting and killing innocent people. I know Hamas enjoys a lot of popular support among the Palestinians, but, (and maybe I'm naive,) I can't believe that every single Palestinian and Israeli is so gung ho to keep the war going. There must be plenty of people on both sides who don't see the point anymore, who just want to get on with their lives, who are tired of living in fear, and are ready to look for ways to coexist. Unfortunately, these peaceable folk aren't in control of the guns, or the governments, or the news cameras. They merely suffer in silent invisibility, until one of them takes some shrapnel in the chest and they're on the evening news, drenched in blood, being carried out of the latest coffee shop that was blown to smithereens. America wanted to bring freedom to Iraq and Afghanistan, but how many innocent people have died in the name of democracy? And is it worth the sacrifice of so many lives? Who should even answer this question? Since the dead can't speak for themselves, should we ask the President if the war was worth it? Or should we ask the families of the deceased? Could there ever be a satisfactory answer to such horrific loss of life? I don't know, but I think it's important to ask the question.
Violence, just like consumer credit, seems like the easy, most expedient way to get what we want. But don't we all know that this is an illusion? I believe people can change. We can fight our addiction to easy money and violence. We can start saving for the future instead of spending it away. And we can start talking instead of shooting. I hope 2009 will be a year that brings a bird of peace out of the ashes. I believe it can be. But, as I've already said, maybe I'm naive.
American "consumers," (can we think of a more demeaning name for ourselves?) can learn to wean ourselves off consumer credit. Spending too much money is only half our problem. We spend money before we have it. Rather than save up for the next cashmere sweater, or Caribbean vacation, we indulge ourselves now and pay later. Except we rack up so many indulgences at such a terrific rate, we end up reaching a point of crisis in our financial lives: face bankruptcy, or change the way we think about money. This tendency isn't unlike the behavior of wall street, which spent years creating money out of nothing, disguising bad investments and then selling those investments in increasingly elaborate packaging so that no one recognized what they were buying. Even the savviest investors ended up paying high dollar for worthless investments, many of them mortgage securities that, if they hadn't been so elaborately disguised, could have been recognized as worthless up front. The "wizards" who perpetrated this fraud wanted fast, easy money. And they got it. For a while. Now, as a nation, wall street and main street alike are having to metaphorically cut up our credit cards and hope like hell we still have a job tomorrow.
Is this so different from the cycle of violence that seems to grip the middle east, among other areas? Is it so different from America's tendency to invade first and ask questions later? Just like Mr. and Mrs. Public have to take some scissors to their credit cards, it's high time governments and terrorist organizations alike poured some sugar in the gas tanks of their war machines. So many people want to erase Israel from the map, and they're willing to blow themselves up along with a lot of other people in pursuit of this dream. They don't seem interested in asking themselves if their goal is even possible. I've got news for them: it's not. Israel isn't going anywhere. All the terrorists are succeeding in doing is hurting and killing innocent people. I know Hamas enjoys a lot of popular support among the Palestinians, but, (and maybe I'm naive,) I can't believe that every single Palestinian and Israeli is so gung ho to keep the war going. There must be plenty of people on both sides who don't see the point anymore, who just want to get on with their lives, who are tired of living in fear, and are ready to look for ways to coexist. Unfortunately, these peaceable folk aren't in control of the guns, or the governments, or the news cameras. They merely suffer in silent invisibility, until one of them takes some shrapnel in the chest and they're on the evening news, drenched in blood, being carried out of the latest coffee shop that was blown to smithereens. America wanted to bring freedom to Iraq and Afghanistan, but how many innocent people have died in the name of democracy? And is it worth the sacrifice of so many lives? Who should even answer this question? Since the dead can't speak for themselves, should we ask the President if the war was worth it? Or should we ask the families of the deceased? Could there ever be a satisfactory answer to such horrific loss of life? I don't know, but I think it's important to ask the question.
Violence, just like consumer credit, seems like the easy, most expedient way to get what we want. But don't we all know that this is an illusion? I believe people can change. We can fight our addiction to easy money and violence. We can start saving for the future instead of spending it away. And we can start talking instead of shooting. I hope 2009 will be a year that brings a bird of peace out of the ashes. I believe it can be. But, as I've already said, maybe I'm naive.
posted by Amy at 9:36 AM
2 Comments:
It's hard for people to change. As I say to my friend, there's too much influence of how you grow up that affects the aspects of your life and future generations. My parents tell me that when the economy was bad in the past, people wouldn't spend money. But this is a different generation that doesn't seem to listen to the past.
Yes, Lalaland, I don't blame you for your skepticism. I know for myself, it can be really hard to resist those after Christmas sales. I've had my eye on a pretty red jacket that is now 50% off. But I don't need it. I really don't! And so I'm not letting myself get it, knowing that if I did, it would feel shiny and new only for a little while and then it would join the ranks of the "boring" clothes I already own.
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