Because You Never Asked

(This essay was written around 1998)

     The word with which this essay takes its name is something that carries much less impact in the United States than in Europe. In the context of the socio-economic history of the United States, state run or public enterprises have played a very small role. This is not the case in Western Europe, where a hybrid form of Capitalism-Socialism has developed in the post-war era, referred to as the "Estado de Bienestar" in Spain, which loosely translates to "The State of Social Well Being". Much of this economic model is premised upon state ownership of industries that provide for the basics of a modern life style; energy supply, health services, water companies, transport facilities, communications, waste disposal, even auto companies or airlines. If we look back at the last fifty years, it could be said this model has served Europe well, having provided a minimally dignified material existence for almost all its population.

     Although the Free Marketeers of the "established order" have always looked at this public sector with something bordering on repulsion, since the fall of the Berlin Wall they have picked up the pace in their efforts to dismantle Europe's "State of Social Well Being". At the core of their efforts is a call to privatize all these state run enterprises, which they describe as inefficient, bureaucratic bloodsuckers that ruin our marriages, corrupt our children, and cost us so much money that no one can afford to go to Euro-Disney. To hell with the security they provide for so many people, says the Gospel of the Wall Street Mafia, we cannot afford them anymore, meaning belt tightening, austerity (for "us", not "them"), tough luck.

     They reach these conclusions by translating the messages they receive from their self-created economic game discussed in the previous essay (see essay "The Established Order"). One cannot continue with this essay without reiterating that this game is only relevant to their concept of life on this planet, that being fulfillment through the material acquisition of the excessive amounts of goods produced and sold in this ferociously competitive market.

     For those of you who are getting sick of hearing me say things like that, I don't blame you. I'm getting sick of it too. Unfortunately, given the diametrically opposed attitude the "established order" incessantly hammers into our brains with their media mind polluters, I still feel insecure enough to repeat these things. It is now my fervent hope that you might be asking yourself . "OK, OK, what other ways are there for life to proceed on this planet?"

     I'm glad you asked.

     I would imagine there are an infinite amount of shades and nuances with which human beings could find the best road to fulfillment. Certainly, a reasonable degree of material well being is to be logically included here, but should it go so far beyond what is necessary for corporal health that it begins to be our only motivational device, that it begins to consume us in idiotic, adolescent, competitive conflict? It is important to note that this complex economic system so religiously worshiped in publications like the International Herald Tribune, cannot survive any fundamental change in what people consider important in their lives. If the acquisition of a new car every 3 years, or the expectation for Nike's latest style in shoes begins to lose its luster, the game is over and today's economic experts will have gone the way of the Pony Express.

     In replacing our current economic system's emphasis on production and sales, what other orientations might serve humanity better? A more fulfilling goal might be one that attempts to create the most pristine, aesthetically pleasing environment, one in which sprawling malls, climbing skyscrapers, mushrooming industrial parks, confusing mazes of highway systems, refineries, gargantuan slabs of airport tarmac, etc. --- all functions of our current system, along with the industrial pollution it creates --- give way to parks, open spaces, botanical gardens, or are simply left to be whatever they would be in their virgin state.

     Who knows, this might actually make us happier than a car with a sound system that could fill the Grand Canyon.

     Another change in orientation might be to exchange the mostly superfluous production of our current system --- along with the massive amount of marketing work needed to successfully sell these products --- for what has already been referred to in these pages as more "quality time" (see essay "The Economy"). This "quality time" would be a more genuine form of freedom than the fraudulent "freedom" of our current mind set, which only seems to demand more and more of our time.

     In an admittedly vaguer vein, we might consider modifying the current economic concept for something that would lead us into a more harmonious, secure, congenial state of existence, something far less encumbered with the stressful, egocentric, adolescent competitiveness of the "established order's" commercial combat model.

     Who knows, there might be something out there more fulfilling for our species than the purchase of the latest shoes endorsed by Michael Jordan. Really.

     In the context of any one of these alternative orientations for human fulfillment, the idea of "inefficiency" as applied to state run or public enterprises becomes irrelevant. (At this juncture, I'd like to coin a new phrase for such entities, because the "established order's" means of communication have succeeded in giving a negative tint to "state run" or "public" corporations. I will now refer to them as "Cooperative Societal Enterprises"). This is because the exaggerated degree of efficiency needed to survive in the competitive global economy would not be necessary for a Cooperative Societal Enterprise operating in a world oriented along other lines. In order to illustrate this, let's put forth the following questions: What percentage of today's telephone calls, Fax's, E-mails, cell phone calls ringing on center court at Wimbledon, etc., are being made by people doing business in this gluttonous atmosphere of productive consumption? What percentage of the air traffic flown today is being made by business travelers? What percentage of the traffic on the road today is provided by people going about their chores in this obese infrastructure of business activity? What percentage of the fuel being burned is being used to feed this monstrous production-marketing behemoth? If we moved away from the "established order's" commercial combat concept of life and towards a more practical approach to our species' material well being, the efficiency needed for a Cooperative Societal Enterprise to operate effectively would be well within our grasp. It would be easy.

     When I think of the billions and billions of dollars spent by the "established order" in persuading us to their vision of life on this planet --- and their commercials, with their incessant quality, have become more than just an attempt to make you buy and more a way of obliterating any other concept of life --- I am not so naïve to believe that people like myself, scattered here and there in pessimistic, anemic protest, will soon change the philosophic direction of mankind. But perhaps there is enough . skepticism? unrest? vacuity? or just plain emotional confusion out there to at least say the following: the next time the privileged people of the established order ask you to tighten your belt in order to make some business enterprise more competitive, or in order to reduce the public debt, or in order to control inflation, or to increase employment, or to hasten monetary union, or because we can't keep the shit from smelling anymore, tell them your belt is tight enough.

     Relevant Material: " . at a time when western culture, as personified by the American model, is rushing forward without the least bit of head wind, this work is an incisive, perhaps necessary critique of a way of life grown recklessly conceited and over confident with itself. Written with a rare blend of elegance and readability, it touches all the bases." Taken from the imaginary book jacket of the collection of essays entitled, "Because You Never Asked", by Jerome Grapel.