Friday, October 10, 2008
SHOUTING INTO THE WIND OF THE PERFECT STORM
Although my personal life is slowly returning to something like it's pre-hurricane shape (but by no means really the same), I'm not inclined to begin blogging again. A much bigger and more disruptive storm is raging across the world, ripping away decades of progress. I have the idea that the eye of the storm will pass over us on election day, when Obama will be elected and, for the great majority of the public voices, it will seem as though calm has come at last and that the terrible calamity has passed.
But it will only be a pause in the disaster. Having smashed up the structure of the world into loose debris, the second part of the storm will then commence, as Obama, with his great mandate, will begin to "fix" things.
It will be many, many years before the notion of economic liberty will be able to reassert itself, and when it does, it will look very different than it did before the storm. When the floodwaters recede, the true magnitude of the devastation will be revealed as we venture out, eyes blinking in shock at the extent of the damage. We will see the temporary walls of sandbags being replaced by high barriers, the construction being carried out by those who will cheerfully explain how foolhardy we were before the storm to have been so blind to the danger of living out in the open. They will have a mandate to radically reshape the contours of our great city in the name of safety, and their hands will be out, demanding payment for the public works.
I have ideas about how those who would not retreat behind the high walls might preserve a little blue sky, but I am not hopeful that they will be heeded, so I am loathe to even speak them. What's the point now that our savior has arrived? With this storm at his back, he will sweep into such power that a quiet voice that speaks of balancing risks against rewards will seem foolhardy. And, even in the best case, the chance to try to strike a better balance won't come again in my lifetime. So it seems best to me to just be quiet and hope that another generation will have the will to stand against the wind.
It is a time of hunkering down.
... LATER:
It suddenly came to me. An image from a movie in my childhood that pretty well sums it up for me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWphqA1Slrw&feature=related
GB, THHotA
posted by Greg 5:43 AM
|
|
