"Who Is John Galt?"
Ayn Rand posed that question in the first line of her classic novel, Atlas Shrugged. She spent the next 1000+ pages (including an unprecented 66-page unbroken speech from the, by then, infamous John Galt) telling us. This novel is considered not only a classic, but required reading for anyone taking a business or economics course.
I never had the honor of taking such a course, but I knew Ms. Rand was an exceptional intellectual of the 20th century and knew she often used fiction as a means to convey a message about society.
Here, now, is my much more humble (not to mention, shorter) version of today's economic picture:
THE BREAKDOWN of society begins when the first person fails to meet their responisibility. When they substitute excuses for the promises they made or, worse, selfishness and denial in exchange for the trust they were given.
Then, like a row of dominos, as each finds the weight of this disappointment too heavy to bear, they collapse, one upon another, until all the precepts of society are shattered and lost. Because responsibility IS trust, and society is based on it.
Corporations do this when they decide to lay off employees just before retirement who have given a lifetime of faithful service, just for the sake of a few dollars saved; they do this a second time when they lay off slightly younger employees and replace them with fresh, new college graduates, again to save a few corporate pennies. They've just short-changed themselves because no matter how valuable a 4-year degree, it will NEVER replace 20 or 40 years of actual experience.
They exaserbate this situation by then turning to the remaining employees (who are both less experienced and lacking in manpower), restructuring the workload to demand more work, yet offering no more in return-- just the promise that, today anyway, they HAVE a job.
This is trust, betrayed.
Parents do this when they give birth to a child, promising a safe and healthy place to grow up, then rush off to a job, leaving the child alone or raised by strangers or in constant poverty and deprivation, substituting all the latest techno-babble for a real relationship but not taking 5 minutes to look at life from their perspective. The price of gas has changed dramatically since most parents were kids-- isn't it logical that being a kid has, too?
Spouses do this when they use their partners for their own selfish ends, completely forgetting the promises they made or the meaning of the very word, "partner." They show more loyalty to their own family or friends, never realizing that they vowed to build a new family with this person.
Children do this when they refuse to honor the parents who care for them and who they depend upon, even after they grow up. Who look upon chores as slave labor, allowances, cellphones, MTV and any other new-age techo-gadget as a birth-right and have the nerve to get angry when their own life compares poorly to what they see on television-- this, a fantasy created by a group of marketers who have asked consumers what they want to see on television.
In a world where trust and honor have lost their meaning, there can be no society -- for these are the foundations of it. This world has been imploding -- expotentially -- for the last 25 years. And unless something very real changes, unless caring returns to being a verb instead of the theoretical, hypothetical illusion it is now, it won't be long before the destruction is complete.
I never had the honor of taking such a course, but I knew Ms. Rand was an exceptional intellectual of the 20th century and knew she often used fiction as a means to convey a message about society.
Here, now, is my much more humble (not to mention, shorter) version of today's economic picture:
THE BREAKDOWN of society begins when the first person fails to meet their responisibility. When they substitute excuses for the promises they made or, worse, selfishness and denial in exchange for the trust they were given.
Then, like a row of dominos, as each finds the weight of this disappointment too heavy to bear, they collapse, one upon another, until all the precepts of society are shattered and lost. Because responsibility IS trust, and society is based on it.
Corporations do this when they decide to lay off employees just before retirement who have given a lifetime of faithful service, just for the sake of a few dollars saved; they do this a second time when they lay off slightly younger employees and replace them with fresh, new college graduates, again to save a few corporate pennies. They've just short-changed themselves because no matter how valuable a 4-year degree, it will NEVER replace 20 or 40 years of actual experience.
They exaserbate this situation by then turning to the remaining employees (who are both less experienced and lacking in manpower), restructuring the workload to demand more work, yet offering no more in return-- just the promise that, today anyway, they HAVE a job.
This is trust, betrayed.
Parents do this when they give birth to a child, promising a safe and healthy place to grow up, then rush off to a job, leaving the child alone or raised by strangers or in constant poverty and deprivation, substituting all the latest techno-babble for a real relationship but not taking 5 minutes to look at life from their perspective. The price of gas has changed dramatically since most parents were kids-- isn't it logical that being a kid has, too?
Spouses do this when they use their partners for their own selfish ends, completely forgetting the promises they made or the meaning of the very word, "partner." They show more loyalty to their own family or friends, never realizing that they vowed to build a new family with this person.
Children do this when they refuse to honor the parents who care for them and who they depend upon, even after they grow up. Who look upon chores as slave labor, allowances, cellphones, MTV and any other new-age techo-gadget as a birth-right and have the nerve to get angry when their own life compares poorly to what they see on television-- this, a fantasy created by a group of marketers who have asked consumers what they want to see on television.
In a world where trust and honor have lost their meaning, there can be no society -- for these are the foundations of it. This world has been imploding -- expotentially -- for the last 25 years. And unless something very real changes, unless caring returns to being a verb instead of the theoretical, hypothetical illusion it is now, it won't be long before the destruction is complete.
posted by Marige | 7/08/2006 12:38:00 PM
