We know something's happening to the economy, but what the hell does it mean? We know it's not good -- Dow's up, Dow's down, governments are working on bailouts, Iceland's going to the IMF for help, home foreclosures are up 71% from this time last year, the pounds of ad inserts for expensive things fill my newspaper. And personally: gas is $4.89/gal, gas is $2.69/gal. What? Stop at the store for 2 cucumbers to join ones from the garden to make my grandma's pickles; cucumbers are $1 each. What? We live in a farming county, there are still lots of local cukes, but ... $1 each.
And yet, nobody I know is panicking, or is even very agitated. My husband and I discuss over dinner what we should do about our small savings account. Leave it for emergencies? Buy stuff while we can? But what? The only thing that seems sensible is stocking up on cases of canned cat food. Would not want to try to explain an economic downshift to the other three members of our family at dinner time.
Danny Westneat, a wonderful writer for the Seattle Times, just travelled all over Washington State and found the same thing: people talk of recession, of depression, of hard times, but not with fear, often wryly.
(I've been trying and trying to insert the link to his column here. No luck. Go to the Seattle Times site and search for "Westneat Oct. 19" if you're interested.)
And then this evening I suddenly realized why this has seemed so familiar. I saw the same behavior over and over when I was a hospice volunteer (and experienced it myself). It's how families act when someone is dying by inches. We know something very difficult is coming; there's going to be pain and loss and we don't know in detail what it's going to mean to us or how we're going to act. And we don't know when or how it will happen. And so we do what we can, what we must -- how did he sleep? can we take her outside for a little fresh air? would a different medication help the pain? look what I brought you -- your favorite!
Of course I may be wrong about this, and the economy may sag and readjust and shuffle around and in a year things will be clunking along again. But it feels like something's dying to me. And dying can be a slow, slow thing, the patient regaining strength, then sinking again, over and over and over, each time a little lower, with everyone staying in the moment, reacting to each small up and down, because that's all you can do, but still braced for that moment when there's no more hope, when what you had is gone. And then things are never the same.
I don't expect an apocalypse; in fact, considering the fact that our economy was steered for so many years by an acolyte of Ayn Rand, I hope to see things end up better in many ways. But between waiting -- that hospice waiting -- and counting the days until the election, I'm a little on the grim side.
TIP:
Enter the amount, and click "Tip" to submit!
Mimetalker
marytkelly
Noahvose
Elizabeth Priddy
Cathy GF
o'stephanie
Salon.com
Comments
Right now, we need to put more emphasis on responding to the actual symptoms and suffering that people, most important those at the middle and lower ends of the economy, are experiencing and less, if any, on worrying about (and arguimg over) what it all means, how it should be labeled, and where it is leading -- because frankly, we don't know the answers to ANY of those questions. Yet. And maybe we never will. There are plenty of people today who are still arguing about what "caused" the Great Depression, when it ended, who was most reponsible for anything good that came from it, etc.
But, those arguments aside, I think one thing more amd more of us are able to see is that we need, in this crisis, the spirit of experimentation and optimism that FDR exemplified. In our on lives and personal policies, too, not just in terms of public policy.
You have touched on a very real phenomenon that deserves a great deal of thought. But not necessarily condemnation or fear. I think the "lack of agitation" you note is not only something different, but also something -- at this point in time -- much less worrisome than the absolute state of denial and absurd acceptance of fantasy (you did mean to refer to our long dependence on an acolyte of Ayn Rand as and example of insane fantasy, didn't you?) too many have held for too long. The people who are still most deeply in denial (on both sides of the aisle) are the ones who are very angry. Because they think they DO have answers, that those who criticize or reject their answers are indulging in treachery and that the failure of their ideas is about betrayal, rather than incompetence. I worry about how violent they may get, how it will muddy the conversation, and most important, destroy cooperation and hinder our best efforts to experiment with new and necessary changes.
In that context, I'm a little on the grim side too. But, I'm hopeful too -- because dires times like these inspire creativity, in both the personal and private life. If we can keep the fear and resistence that creativity engenders -- and keep our minds open to thinking of, and taking pride in, an America with a different set of criteria, different notions of power, a different (and much, much broader) concept of prospertity and well-being, we'll not only be fine, we'll be better.
What we need to do is wait and see and figure it out. And, for all of that, "lack of agitation" is a very good attitude from which to proceed.
It's true I talk about "lack of agitation" but that's not my point. What strikes me is the similarity between people's response to the economic upheavals going on and families' responses to a loved one dying slowly. It's a very, very hard time; people brace themselves for --- they don't know what, or when. Are we doing the right thing? Will we do the right thing when the going gets very rough? Of course uncertainty is the ultimate nature of life, no matter how we try to disguise it, but the uncertainty of imminent death is awfully hard.
And I think "grim" is too, well, grim a word. Looking up the definition of the word, I feel more like "grim determination" than "grim little hovel" -- although that may come, too.
I do agree with you about responding to the actual suffering happening now to people who were vulnerable to begin with. But I don't know how much the government can do; I suspect that this may be something that has to happen on a person-to-person, community basis.
I don't know whether the economy is just suffering a slow death or will experience a chrysalis-like reemergence, but right now there's no concrete signs for me that anything is happening -- even though I know that I'll experience the effects eventually (rising price of food, hiring freezes, etc.). Hence, I'm still very concerned about the economy, but, for better or for worse, it's an abstract concern for me right now.