Govt. Control
Reading assignment: this article from the NYT.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/business/30auto.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=print
It struck a cord with me as something that has gone deeply and terribly wrong. It is wrong because in the article it is clearly accepted that the US Government has just as much right to make decisions, give opinions, and decide what is best for Chrysler as the management of Chrysler does, or the bondholders do. In fact, from the tone of the article it is quite clear that the administration, and Obama himself, are closely and directly involved in the operations and details of the collapse of Chrysler.
While some say this is justified because of the extraordinary circumstances, never before has the US Administration been so interwoven with the fabric of American business. We are leaning dangerously close to the authoritarian style socialist state of Atlas Shrugged: and just as in the book, it is all in the name of "the people."
In mining, there is a term for mining out just the most profitable sections of the ore in order to make the quickest buck. It is known as "high grading," a term which is also applied in mining to outright theft. The long-term effects of high grading are the closure of the mine: the remaining ore is not of high-enough value to keep operating, so the mine has to close.
I believe the period we are in today is a period of moral and economic high-grading. We are selling out our best assets, and using them to try and cover up what has gone wrong. We take out trillions of debt upon the long-term value the US government has built up by being the world's best borrower, and the world's strongest economy. We decry greed, profit, achievement, personal wealth and all of the other virtues upon which this country has been built in order to try and establish a moral high-ground where we feel as though we are rectifying a wrong. The very fact that that wrong was brought upon us by the opposite of those virtues, by the very moral voice which cries out against Wall Street, against personal distinction can be obliterated by mining up and selling off our virtues.
There was a line of thinking, post-modernism, which claimed that the governments and the corporations of the world were working together to market, advertise, mislead and lie to the public in such a way that the public became a massive unthinking consumer. The onslaught was seen to be so complete, that few if any could see that behind it lay the evil corporations and governments. This has of course been proven entirely wrong. It is not governments and corporations who want to hide the truth from the individual, it is the individual who seeks to hide themselves from the truth. They do this by elevating the worthless as valuable, the pointless as interesting, and a protective, self-reconciling version of reality in place of truth.
The greatest crime will be if those who know better, those who understand, stand by the sidelines and allow this country to be high graded into worthlessness. To allow collective self-protecting revisionist shallow meaningless babble to take the place of real discussion. To allow the mob to replace the democracy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/business/30auto.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=print
It struck a cord with me as something that has gone deeply and terribly wrong. It is wrong because in the article it is clearly accepted that the US Government has just as much right to make decisions, give opinions, and decide what is best for Chrysler as the management of Chrysler does, or the bondholders do. In fact, from the tone of the article it is quite clear that the administration, and Obama himself, are closely and directly involved in the operations and details of the collapse of Chrysler.
While some say this is justified because of the extraordinary circumstances, never before has the US Administration been so interwoven with the fabric of American business. We are leaning dangerously close to the authoritarian style socialist state of Atlas Shrugged: and just as in the book, it is all in the name of "the people."
In mining, there is a term for mining out just the most profitable sections of the ore in order to make the quickest buck. It is known as "high grading," a term which is also applied in mining to outright theft. The long-term effects of high grading are the closure of the mine: the remaining ore is not of high-enough value to keep operating, so the mine has to close.
I believe the period we are in today is a period of moral and economic high-grading. We are selling out our best assets, and using them to try and cover up what has gone wrong. We take out trillions of debt upon the long-term value the US government has built up by being the world's best borrower, and the world's strongest economy. We decry greed, profit, achievement, personal wealth and all of the other virtues upon which this country has been built in order to try and establish a moral high-ground where we feel as though we are rectifying a wrong. The very fact that that wrong was brought upon us by the opposite of those virtues, by the very moral voice which cries out against Wall Street, against personal distinction can be obliterated by mining up and selling off our virtues.
There was a line of thinking, post-modernism, which claimed that the governments and the corporations of the world were working together to market, advertise, mislead and lie to the public in such a way that the public became a massive unthinking consumer. The onslaught was seen to be so complete, that few if any could see that behind it lay the evil corporations and governments. This has of course been proven entirely wrong. It is not governments and corporations who want to hide the truth from the individual, it is the individual who seeks to hide themselves from the truth. They do this by elevating the worthless as valuable, the pointless as interesting, and a protective, self-reconciling version of reality in place of truth.
The greatest crime will be if those who know better, those who understand, stand by the sidelines and allow this country to be high graded into worthlessness. To allow collective self-protecting revisionist shallow meaningless babble to take the place of real discussion. To allow the mob to replace the democracy.
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