Because You Never Asked

     (This essay is one of the first written in this series, going all the way back to 1993. Although it is somewhat lacking in specificity, it set the tone for much of what was to follow.)

     The most famous phrase to come out of the '92 election campaign was the utterance "it's the economy stupid!", used by the Clinton camp to keep their focus in the proper place. The success of this strategy is no longer open to debate, but for some of us the more relevant remark would have been "it's the stupid economy, stupid!"

     All presidential candidates try to convince the electorate that they can make the economy work the way it is supposed to. I've concluded that even if such is accomplished --- more jobs, more production, more new housing starts, more new styles of sneakers, golf clubs and all the other illusions we delude ourselves with --- on the overall ledger for the progression of our species, we have fallen further towards bankruptcy.

     What we currently call "success" is to be producing as much as we can, as fast as we can, and to be turning it over as quickly as possible. I realize there are subtle shades and nuances to all this, like when the economy is "heating up" and has to be "cooled down" (I think this happens in the summer), but only the most demented, perverted minds can possibly claim to understand any of that. For the purposes of this essay and for the enlightenment of more reasonably thinking human beings, my original assertion shall stand as untainted.

     With this in mind, I suggest, at this point in the evolutionary development of our planet, that this economic premise (henceforth known as The Premise) has outlived its usefulness and is now in err. I would substitute this premise for one based upon the use of our technology to provide more "quality time" rather than more production. Some of us have come to the realization that we can maintain our current standard of living (whatever that means) with just a fraction of the aggravation. If this choice were made clear to people, I trust many would find such a new premise quite attractive.

     It is not an original thought to call our economic system into question. Certainly, the equitable distribution of wealth has always been a hot topic, though the failure of this century's Communist experiment has taken some of the starch out of that collar, at least for the moment. The most fashionable bitch as I write is the ecological concern. Our almost purely mercantile way of seeing life, at least for some of us, is beginning to make the Earth a less pleasing, less healthy place to live and The Premise is taking some share of the blame amongst the rank and file. But ecology is something like religion: there are lots of people who profess to it but don't truly live it. Today's "ecologist" is also a knee jerk consumer who either can't kick the habit or doesn't see the contradiction.

     In spite of this confusion, the ecological dilemma could still serve as a springboard to the true issue here: what kind of human beings do we want to be, and what is best for us?    

     For people with my outlook (I found one just the other day), our economic system does not turn out an optimal human being. The behavior needed to survive in this competitive, aggressive environment, does not create sensitive people, but rather, a self-centered, egotistical, insecure adolescent mentality. Such exaggerated cultural competitiveness also creates fertile ground for such acts as crime, deceit, hypocrisy and, worst of all, war. In all too many cases, being a "success" does not correlate with being a nice person, and quite frequently, one man's good fortune has a Newtonian effect on the other side of the system, creating an equal amount of misfortune for someone else. In short, it does not produce sincere human beings adept at harmonious living.

     The true task that lies ahead is not so much the changing of our economic system, but the creation of the human being who will willingly abandon it. This will not be easy (talk about understatements!) because the commercial propaganda that shapes our concepts of ourselves is the most sophisticated, all encompassing, thoroughly permeating mind control effort ever created. The Soviet experience was not a failure due to its inability to provide for the material needs of its people, but more for its inability to create the man with a new outlook, one who'd be immune to the superfluous materialism of the status quo.

     The next time there is a serious challenge to the way of life spawned by The Premise, the revolutionaries must not hide behind their walls, or try to keep their people from being "ideologically contaminated". No! They must seriously challenge this materialism, this consumerism, by offering a more congenial, harmonious, secure way of life.

     The failure of the social experiment we call Communism, which was a logical but oafishly clumsy attempt to deal with the problems caused by The Premise, is further fuel for those who'd stoke the fires of our purely mercantile way of looking at life. Their stranglehold on the "message" (TV being the main culprit here) obliterates the fact that there are an infinite number of ways to find, develop, perfect and distribute the resources of the only planet we have. Commercial combat was not the first, nor will it be the last of these ways.

     If, as a species, we are to reach some higher state of being, realization, evolution, enlightenment, security, harmony; if that false ad campaign proclaiming our "freedom" is to live up to its billing (or perhaps we should simply say if we are to take that next step up from the caves) The Premise must be sent to the showers. My suggestion for a New Premise, that being more quality time in place of more production, is still snoozing away out there in the bullpen. I think it's time to get it warmed up.

     Relevant Material: In speaking of the American mentality, the narrator says, "What for us is honor and dishonor is for them earnings and losses."

     " . that the nucleus of the "Yankee Spirit" was buying and selling. They sold their democratic ideology like petty businessmen, backed up by their arms treaties and economic pressures." These two excerpts are from the extraordinary novel, "Shibumi", by a mysterious author named Trevanian.