May I humbly suggest that our financial crisis has a great deal to do with how virtual our lives have become? If you go to the marketplace with coin or something to barter and you exchange it for something to eat, money has tangible value. But if you sit at your computer, dividing up "tranches," you are imagining value where none exists. The numbers on the screen may convince you that what you own has risen in value. But where is the real value? You can't eat the ones and zeroes behind the screen. You can't even imagine them.
Rewarding people for creating things of imaginary value may trick us into believing we are rich, but are we? What lies behind those numbers on the screen? And what do those "tranches" represent? We seem to have created a world where infinite zeroes represent wealth, but if we stop believing in zeroes, we are suddenly impoverished.
Many supposedly successful people spend more time with virtual interaction than flesh and blood people. Our credo becomes: I Blackberry therefore I am. Have we considered how this changes the way we see ourselves and the world?
In Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, Lemuel Gulliver voyages to a country called Laputa all of whose denizens are lost inside themselves. With one eye turned inward and the head perpetually inclined either to the right or to the left, these curious creatures cannot communicate with each other at all. They utilize instead the services of a "Flapper" to hit them in the face with a bladder full of dried peas when another Laputan wishes to communicate something.
"Their outward Garments were adorned with the Figures of Suns, Moons, and Stars, interwoven with those of Fiddles, Flutes, Harps, Trumpets, Guittars, Harpsichords, and many more Instruments of Musick, unknown to us in Europe. I observed here and there many in the Habit of Servants, with a blown Bladder fastned like a Flail to the End of a short Stick, which they carried in their Hands. In each Bladder was a small Quantity of dried Pease, or little Pebbles, (as I was afterwards informed.) With these Bladders they now and then flapped the Mouths and Ears of those who stood near them, of which Practice I could not then conceive the Meaning. It seems the Minds of these People are so taken up with intense Speculations, that they neither can speak, nor attend to the Discourses of others, without being rouzed by some external Taction upon the Organs of Speech and Hearing; for which Reason those Persons who are able to afford it always keep a Flapper (the Original is Climenole) in their Family, as one of their Domesticks; nor ever walk abroad or make Visits without him. And the Business of this Officer is, when two or more Persons are in Company, gently to strike with his Bladder the Mouth of him who is to speak, and the right Ear of him or them to whom the Speaker addresses himself. This Flapper is likewise employed diligently to attend his Master in his Walks, and upon Occasion to give him a soft Flap on his Eyes; because he is always so wrapped up in Cogitation, that he is in manifest Danger of falling down every Precipice, and bouncing his Head against every Post and in the Streets, of jostling others, or being jostled himself into the Kennel."
Have we become like the Laputans, forever attending to our Blackberries, believing them more than the lives around us? Have we refused to see and hear what is happening in the marketplace because we are so intrigued by the screens flashing before our eyes?
I think the answer is clear.
Electronic means make it possible for my $1000 to have a tangible value as ownership of shares of a company. Again if this is confusing, stop reading. This technology has indeed facilitated the rapid trade, which in some ways contributed to the preexisting problems of deregulation, greed/selfishness, and general stupidity. The problem is not the disconnection between individual humans and the decline of personal interaction, although there are issues related. Our economic situation is a result of the misuse of this technology, not the result of its existence.
All those lost zeroes.
It was an unsustainable system, but it served the Bush Admin well... keep the masses properly opiated and they won't notice our 2 intractable wars and deterioration of civil liberties.
The wealthy will become exponentially wealthier while everyone else struggles. The cyberspace references are superfluous... technology will advance and our lives will become more complicated, but it shouldn't distract us from our National Economic Agenda -- which should value manufacturing and industry -- providing workers with a decent wage and health care... and finally -- capitalism cannot be allowed to run amok because it is too brutal a system and will end up enriching the very few and drowning the rest of the masses.
I'm going with the original responder: This crisis is a product of greed, fraud, and deregulation, not some bizarre metaphysical karma that says "I compute therefore the economy tanks".
Poor us.
Good blog. Thanks.
Then each year, that is reduce by million on the total or $100,000 per year until the bottom raises.
That might be a Good Start.
i know, never happen. But why, oh, why, in the name of the sweet Goddess Herself does anyone need more than a $100 million? I can live a Good Life without that custom luxury submarine and those three mansions around the world.
In 1970 the average house was 1,200 square feet for a family with three kids. A mortgage was a necessary but slightly ominous evil, and some folks even had mortgage-burning parties when they made their last payment. People paid with cash, and the closest many families came to credit was lay away.
Then it became 2,400 square feet with granite counters and one kid. Mortgage freedom became endless refinancing for more granite counters, and banks pushed credit cards on undergraduates in as they ate pizza in the student union.
Americans having a problem being "wrapped up in cogitation"? Good one!
But if it makes you feel better to blame average jane and joe and their ipods...sure, okay. Whatever.
The self-involved class? Those wealthy enough to afford to be that idle? Or in a position to leverage their ability to manipulate information to meet all their physical needs? Or...?
Surely those operating jack hammers, playing music, teaching in a classroom, cannot afford to always dwell in that realm.
For me, I work mostly in my home office, manage my stock portfolio, conduct business, check on Abebooks to see how much my signed first edition of "Fear of Flying" might be worth (it was a better investment than the stocks I bought), and for entertainment, post on HP.
There is no real person at the water cooler to say, don't be glum, Ironquill, the market is a dimension of life, it isn't life, try straightening out your desk, and remember that it's your day to titivate the break room.
Today I imagined that mys posts could even mean something in the real world and I blah, blahed about Buffet being given the nod to add more zero's in his column (that means his real value is increasing) by receiving my taxpayer dollars(my real value is decreasing) to buy toxic assets at pennies (little pixels) on the dollar (larger pixels) while I am forced to gamble my stash of red numbers on bank stocks (very small pixels) to make up my paper losses--which are only imagined, since I can't touch or feel them.
Its time to clean the bathroom or catalogue some books--now those are tangible effects.
I have earned my living at a computer screen of some sort for nearly 30 years. I love the screen. But when I'm out on the street, there are beautiful people and buildings to look at. Look up, look around! Hey, you might even see Erica Jong walking by.
there is a phone or ipod in every ear
and few are present in this moment