shanikka, "The Center Is Not Holding"
"What Leading Indicators Don't Tell You: The Center Is Not Holding, Damnit!"
by shanikka
by shanikka
"What inspired my first diary in a long time today was the first stanza
from the poem which inspired its title:
from the poem which inspired its title:
"Turning and turning in the widening gyreThe falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."
- William Butler Yeats, "The Second Coming" (1919)
"To me, the line that resonates the most for me is the last one. IMO, it expresses succinctly the reality of the complete disconnect that those on the Right and the Left who tell the Don't Haves to "Remain Calm! All Is Well!!" have from tens of millions of Americans who have been visited by a financial bloodbath - with no end in sight. The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.
Knowing that I am posting this on a left-wing blog, I can almost predict how many will focus on the easy political analogy of Yeats' words (i.e. the Democrats are right but weak from lack of conviction, the Republicans are evil but unified in their determination to succeed politically). It's a fair reading, I guess. But to me it is not the most important one, if (as I hope) folks reading this diary truly care something not just about the Haves (which, let's be blunt, all surveys done here have shown are the majority of DailyKOS readers and left-wing bloggers generally) but also the Don't Haves. When placed back in the center of analysis, it is easy to see that in Yeats' viewpoint - at the end of World War I, to be sure, but history has a bad habit of repeating itself where politics are concerned - it is not just the ascention and dominance of a "left" wing or "right" ring politically that is the problem. It's America itself that is at risk because of the failings of both, when it comes to sacrificing the center. With the result is that the "everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned." And "mere anarchy is loosed on the world."
Don't believe me? Do us all a favor then: put down the mouse, get off the Internet and spend some quality time with those who Don't Have and Haven't Had for as long as they can remember. Ask them what they feel about America and their chances in it. Whether they any longer care about America's rules of the game, or "right from wrong", or bootstraps. Ask them if they are still prepared to sacrifice a lifetime of labor for the mere promise that someday they might be able to have an apartment of their own? (Many don't even fantasize about being able to pay ALL their bills on time, anymore...)
And definitely be sure to ask them how they feel about the Masters of the Universe, aka the investors and the economists and the traders and the wheelers and dealers on Wall Street.
Spend some time doing this, and you'll come to a better understanding of the utter hopelessness and utter pragmatism that led to the popular urban phrase "Get Rich, or Die Trying." Not to mention the continuing increase in lottery revenues.
Since it seems that this is all America has given a damn about for the past 30 years: those that Have. They have become the weathervane of everything. Whether the economy is good or bad. Whether we're in recession or depression. And whether things are improving, or getting worse. This singular focus on this group occurs both on the right, where it is obvious self-interest, and on the left, where our pundits and economists continue to pretend that "leading indicators" are some sort of objective measure about the true health of the American economy (i.e. how the majority of Americans, those who Don't Have - but not for lack of trying - are doing day by day) when all they measure is how much money is moving through the economy, even if only 10 people are spending it. And they continue to pretend that a "leading indicator" is some guarantee about the conditions that follow it, when in fact it's at best a tea leaf to be read. Leading indicators certainly should be no real cause for determing whether there really is cause for celebration about our country's economic condition, when those that follow them can't even (or won't even) tie them to the present condition of the average Joe Blow in the street. The average American.
From where I sit, even as we celebrate "Recession, not Depression" the "ceremony of innocence", i.e. American dream (The dream that hard work and honesty in America would guarantee at least something above peonage and debt/wage slavery for most) is dying, for most Americans. Slowly, yet I fear permanently. No matter how much money folks like me, or folks like most of those who are denizens of political blogs, might happen to make in the stock market or elsewhere in the so-called recovering economy (as long as we still have a job, anyway.)
Who will stand up for the Don't Haves and, in their name, stand up for what used to be the best of our country, refuse to focus only on the superficial rewards reserved for the Haves be the bellwether for whether America is on the mend, and demand that the Have Nots - the lower and middle classes whose labor is truly responsible for America's wealth - It certainly won't be our politicians - they've proven that, from our beloved President on down. Will it be us? And, if so, when?
Deepak Chopra wrote a few years ago that: "When the center doesn't hold, it's not just the fault of extremists and reactionaries, though. In the same poem Yeats wrote that "The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity." America's best are its centrists, progressives, and liberals. They have been responsible for countering reactionary tendencies and standing for the common man and woman. Now the average citizen is standing idly by as if passivity is a viable option. Power doesn't work that way. A hollow center is as dangerous for us as for the Iraqis. Without a center, they won't survive. Without a center, we will survive, but the future could bring about an America few of us will recognize."
It does America no good if all there are only a few Haves, compared to the teeming masses of Don't Haves, with nobody else - i.e. the working and middle class - in between. Economically and, thus, politically, it is to our nation's peril that there is no center in America, anymore - politically or economically. Unless of course you are one of those that truly believe that "leading indicators" are more relevant than the continued rise in joblessness and hunger and homelessless - tent cities (including in such urban jungles as the town formerly known as Providence, Rhode Island) - all across the country when it comes to assessing whether America's economy is "on the mend.
If you are, I truly feel sorry for you. And urge you to actually get out more and spend some time with some Don't Haves, which are not the invisible minority you want to pretend they are but instead are tens of millions - soon to be hundreds of millions if something revolutionary doesn't happen soon in terms of our political and economic strategies.
Go spend time with them. They used to be our country's Center. And, no matter what the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg and all those other economists aka theorists aka investors aka Haves tell you, they - our country's Center - are not holding, and thus neither are you. Despite the increase in your stock portfolios."
Go spend time with them. They used to be our country's Center. And, no matter what the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg and all those other economists aka theorists aka investors aka Haves tell you, they - our country's Center - are not holding, and thus neither are you. Despite the increase in your stock portfolios."
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