A change in culture Part One

The fundamental change. It's taking place in our culture right now. As information becomes more fluid, turbulence seems to be increasing. Conversations online are rude and belligerent. Polarization is more common than consensus now.

Part of it is the economy, maybe even a major part. Let's face it, even as computers and capital flow have made things more efficient, they have also led to formerly sidelined nations getting a piece of the pie, which simply hasn't grown fast enough to accomodate everyone.

Americans don't understand this. We've allowed, even encouraged our elected government to keep the status quo, that is provide the illusion of economic expansion with government spending. Twenty years ago Tom Peters predicted what is happening now. He didn't have an answer for the capital drain that is flowing downhill into China and India and soon Africa. I don't have one either, but I'm pretty sure that government can't do anything about it.

A good while back I remember an analogy made about putting a penny into the fusebox. When an electric circuit gets overheated, a fuse or breaker trips and shuts everything off until the problem can be repaired. By putting a copper penny in the break and getting electricity going, you forestall the power failure, but at the risk of burning up all the wiring. When the government pumps money or other controls into the economy, it's analogous to putting the penny in the fusebox.

It is against this background of unfocused hopelessness that todays unemployed and others are protesting against the big guys on Wall Street and beyond. They can pretend for awhile that they aren't the big guys themselves, but a look at the world will reveal the truth. Not that it makes any difference.