THE S.S. RAT

Generally, I like to be correct. I like it a lot. I like knowledge and info and thinking and synthesizing and concluding and basing my opinions on the realities of science and human nature, and the hard, smart work of trusted others. I don’t choose to retreat into cynicism, apathy, religious platitudes, substance abuse, or other ostrich-like behaviors.


I wish in the case of the global economy that I could shake off this feeling that I am correct in how I think things are going to go. But I can’t. When there are problems – fundamental, intractable, entrenched – that are difficult to comprehend in their size and scope, we often cannot understand what is coming until it is too late and they are living in our own homes and the homes of everyone we know. It is totally against my nature to be so grim; I am not a fatalist nor ever without hope. But our world has become so unbalanced and inequitable across such a broad swath of cultures and countries that it’s going to take a long time to fix, and things are going to get worse before they can get better.

Why? Physics, cycles, sustainability. What goes up must come down, and greed unchecked for too long has consequences. A very small number of men around the world have hoarded our resources, bought up our governments, and still desire more, under the respectable cover of industry, development, and trickle-down commerce. They play us for the fools we are by leading us into division and rancor, promising us a bright future while dismantling any hope of achieving it. They play upon our fears by demonizing the weakest members of society, distracting us from who is really to blame. They play with our planet with no thought for its health, and with our lives, vampires who toss us in a mass grave after they’ve taken everything they can from us.

The ships are going down, one by one, and the rats are scrambling to survive by any means possible. As you drown, they will perch on your head and berate you for causing the storm. They will swim to an off-shore holding, and you will sink to the bottom of the sea.

Until the day comes when we ALL – all of us, with no separate and ultimately meaningless factions of religious or political belief -- decide we don’t want rats to determine our futures anymore, we remain leaden, sunken, helpless, and unable to change our fates.