Every armchair, it seems, comes pre-installed with a strong sense of moral outrage. It has become de rigeur to speak of the (unspeakable) greed that has circulated around Wall Street. "They're getting what they deserve," the armchairs cry. "How could a corrupt minority imperial our great country?" they ask. If only the guilty could be punished, the system would recover and the armchairs appeased.
But there's a problem with all of this moralizing: The further we dig for blame, the more that the finger of blame will point back at each of us. And thus, "the guilty" will likely be punished whether or not there is a shrill public outcry. Why do I say this? Because today's economic mess is not an isolated problem fueled solely by Wall Street's "greed." Rather, the entirety of American society has spawned the greed that has collapsed our economy. We have all been complicit in a system in which mass-consumerism binges and a get-rich-quick investment culture has perpetually stoked the fires of Wall Street's malaise. Think about why the housing bubble burst -- because for awhile, everyone was buying houses, but then the next year, that demand plummeted. Pointing the finger at the realtors, homebuilders, and financiers who were trying to meet this growing demand is patently absurd. The so-called "criminals" in finance and real estate are creatures of a system that regular folks all across America helped to created (and support). To now bite the hands that were serving our greed so capably is fatuous at best, downright evil at worst.
The fact that our country has maintained such prodigious wealth for the past 15 years -- at a time when our educational, political, and civic insitutions have been quitely self-destructing with such incredible vigor -- is a powerful testament to the skill and aplomb of our "duplicitous" bankers, "unscrupulous" investors, and "crooked" politicians. For almost two decades, the diligent work of these men and women has propped up a rotting system with remarkable effectiveness. Small wonder that many of them worked 80+ hours a week, with nary an hour's break to spend their money, nor a day to spare for some quality time with their families.
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The danger in this realization is that the armchairs now have fuel for a new kind of moral outrage -- culture backlash against materialistic consumerism, the ills of free-market capitalism, and so on. This also is to be avoided, for it is just as counter-productive. What we need is for the armchairs to disappear -- for the "culture wars" to cede to plain-folks civic engagement. For example, we need more parents at PTA meetings -- but we need them there to discuss community standards, not to shout at each other. The armchairs *must go.* If there is a war to be fought, it's with a piece of furniture, not with other people.
In truth, our problems are ultimately structural in origin. the American system has been rotting from the insid-out since the late 1980s, back when we "won" the Cold War. As a result of our "victory," we lost the Soviet system as our societal rival and Doppelganger. Without a country to play the "villain" role in the great American narrative, we lost the common enemy that tied us together as a nation. And with nothing to push against, we lost our way, and our economy began to eat its own own tail. We have become the victims of our own success, our own wealth, and our own complacence. And so, in 2008, we have reached an inflection point that history books will likely refer to as "the credit crisis" -- which, in fact, is a proximate cause rather than the disease itself. Mostly, today we need a swift exit from the strange dream-world of the past 20 years -- from the absurdly low prices, accumulation of debt, and the rusting of our social institutions.
Unfortunately, instead of coordinating a comprehsensive system re-boot, we are sitting in armchairs, commanding that politicians on TV screens fix our problems for us. From the comfort of our armchairs, it's easy to sit idly by while we turn our country's leaders into scapegoats. Only when we eschew the armchairs for civic engagement will we give our leaders a chance to become heroes. Until then, every "armchair American" will be spreading the same old rot as before -- thus continuing to unleash the termites that have already been gnawing at the pillars of our society.
Here's hoping we can each turn a new leaf, set aside our self-righteous opinions, and instead take up the hard work necessary to reclaim America's lost prosperity.
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