“Super Committee” and “Rebound”- semantics for stalling the inevitable

The “Super Committee” has now failed and the stock market dropped. We’re in a tizzy over imaginary actions that never happened, caused by something that wasn’t.
The Dayton Daily News proclaims housing is rebounding in Dayton today. Really?

How do we come up with these superlatives without any real justification? I was having a short discussion with a good friend yesterday- a veteran police officer, talking about the plight of a friend in the courts- he says “the truth is malleable” – so true.

It’s why the entire industry of “Public Relations” exists. It’s why politicians hire “campaign strategists” and “consultants” to help put lipstick on their piggish campaigns.

What happened to actual action?

The stock market has taken wild swings- sometimes because the programs that now run trading encountered a programming hickup- or because we don’t look at facts anymore- especially when company financials have as much credibility as a slot machine. Every time you spin it- you get a different answer. Where are core fundamental answers in today’s world? We’ve got presidential candidates talking about evolution and others not knowing what happened in… what was the name of that country again? Can I buy a vowel?

I have an 8 year old who now thinks it’s fun to poke fun at me for “using big words” and “trying to show everyone how smart you are”- have we really started to worship stupid people?

Apparently well reasoned debate of the issues must be done in soundbites, because, well, we’re starting to have the attention span of a goldfish (which is supposedly, according to scientists about 3 seconds). The Occupy Protests can’t be serious because they can’t condenses their mission statement into 50 words?

What happened to intellectualism?

The problems we’re facing today aren’t going to be solved with slogans, flag waving or better PR. Things don’t change just because the media says they have- or because we have a new way of measuring “progress.” Things change because we actually make changes: real, substantive, fundamental changes.

It’s not saying “Hope” or “Change” it’s doing it.

I watched the movie “Too big to fail” on the way to Europe, which apparently is in the process of failing. (Highly recommended movie btw). It seems the guiding argument for creating the “super committee” was that  Congress was too big. Now, even 12 people have failed us as well. The handing over of this work to a committee of an even number could only bring failure- it was a recipe for disaster. What we need is a leader to actually step up and lead. The president has failed us, the free markets have failed us, our laws are failing us (when we have a CEO steal millions and get 7 days).

You have to wonder when the New York Times has an Op-Ed piece called “How China can defeat America” and they seem to have a better understanding of what made our country great than we do right now.

For all the talk, all the positioning, I’ve yet to hear a single substantive plan, a “New Deal” put forward to re-make America and solve our problems of widening economic inequality and the destruction of the middle class- and the imploding of our government’s financial standing at all levels. The bad news is we need at least two plans- to really have a debate.

To quote the most famous philosopher known to Americans, Mr. Miyagi, “Either you karate do ‘yes’ or karate do ‘no.’  You karate do ‘guess so,’ ” We’ve been trying to do karate by consensus and guessing so.

If we don’t make real changes soon, there will be a fight, just as we’ve seen other governments toppled or reconstituted (don’t even ask for a count on how many have changed in the last few weeks- Greece, Italy, Spain… without including the continuation of the “Arab Spring” which is outliving its media given name).

To quote a friend, Sally Hogshead: “Break out the nun-chucks and let the street fighting begin.” because if we don’t start talking seriously about making systemic change- it will be made for us the old fashioned way: I’ll quote a famous Chinese philosopher: Mao Zedong: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”

We have more guns in America than we seem to have leaders.

That’s the very real reason that I know eventually we’ll come to our senses, or not.

That’s the inevitable if we don’t change soon.

 

 

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