Where is all that wealth going? Markets are falling all over the world. I have always been told that socialism will not work. I have always been told that we who said that putting profit before people were wrong. Now I want to know what greater harm socialism has ever done to people than this system is doing right now. Can we estimate the magnitude of the harm? Can we assess the damage? No, I'm not looking to blame any one. We are all to blame. Even we who knew the system was bad and would hurt us. We are all to blame because we never had the courage or stamina or whatever it takes to say no to this system It has demonstrated over and over again that it is for the rich and powerful not for all us ordinary people and certainly not for the workers of all kinds whose labor feeds and clothes and houses us. Who will suffer from what this collapse brings? Not the wealthy. They always have the upper hand. We have seen it again and again. No, the weakest and most vulnerable will suffer even more now. If you think this is a temporary problem that has a solution read on below. I think you are wrong.
The political theater that we have been experiencing lately has had unintended consequences. I can not believe that anyone or any group knew what would come nor do I believe anyone knows where this will end. The system's stability is being challenged in a new way. The system has been built on certain myths and beliefs and they are being shaken. It has never been possible to predict effects that might arise if that set of myths and beliefs were to be weakened beyond some critical point. Have they now? The irony is we don't really know. The pundits are about to throw things on the fire not knowing which of them are flammable and which are not.
One thing is certain. Because of the way we all have been thought to think, the relationships, connections, dependencies are poorly understood if at all. We have a world model coming from having reduced our world to categories and parts losing all sight of what it is as a whole system.
I wish I could blame the right for the dominance of reductionist thinking and the use of mythical direct causal models to put this world view together, but, after a lifetime in science working with some of the best minds around, I have to acknowledge that the problem is close to universal. Certainly attempts to talk about it here have shown that.
The system is beyond our control partly because we do not have a decent model of how it works. Given the theories about economics and the health of the planet and the relationship of these models to reality, how will this crisis be dealt with? Who has answers?
If no one really does then why is it that everyone is so sure that the present system is the best way to go? Why have we allowed them to scrap health care and well being to allow the rich to get richer? If any possible good is to come of this then can we please take the trouble to ask serious questions about this system everyone is so sure is the best possible? Can we possibly entertain the possibility that it is not? Can we possibly think about picking up the pieces and not trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together again?
I dream on. At 75 I have experienced a lot. I never expected to face a world wide depression though. In all my wildest dreams I never though it would get to this point. I live in a country that can not govern itself and that is willing to take the rest of the world down with it rather than get its act together. All these years of struggle and trying to help my country be what its myths and slogans claim it is. These are indeed dark days.