This is tough. It always is. I haven't settled on a resolution I can keep for the coming year. Time's running out on 2011, and I suspect you're having the same problem. Here's what I've got at the top of a long list.
I'm thinking of trying vegetarianism. But if I were to go for it, it would have to be all out; which is to say whole hog. No animal products whatsoever, neither of the land or the water, would find their way onto the menu. It would be a bear trying to decide what to pair with the vegetables, grains, nuts or fruits at every meal.
Of course, holidays would be easy. They could all be celebrated like the 4th of July, with good old American hot dogs. No meat in those, that's for sure. As for the rest of the year, there are such venerable animal free standbys as Vienna sausages, Spam, and potted meat. But I just don't know if I can come up with a sufficient variety of recipes to cover the entire calendar. I'm still doing the research. Times like these are when I miss Julia Child the most.
Well, that's where I am right now. Good luck with your resolutions. And, oh yeah, Happy New Year!
New Orleans Labor Voice
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Friday, December 30, 2011
Faith In The Market?
Many people nowadays subscribe to the notion that the market is a great and supreme power outside of ourselves, and that rules are anathema to its operation. They treat this conviction as religious doctrine. They also tend to belong to the same near theocratic contingent of the polity known as the religious right. And they are as fervent about one religious view as the other.
But when these two elements of their worldview are subjected to scrutiny, a great divergence is revealed. They display unshakable faith in the omnipotence of one religious object, and nothing but doubt and worry regarding the actual power of the other. The codification of strictures for appropriate conduct in one sphere does nothing to diminish its power to inform and enrich human life. But in the other, any requirement for humane conduct is seen ironically as a lethal threat to its capacity to provide for our well being.
Think of it this way: If the Children of God had not received the Tablets from the hand of Moses, they would have been destined to wander forever, blindly suffering self-inflicted cruelty after cruelty, insensible to the relief and comforts of God's infinite mercy. Rules certainly did not diminish the power and beneficence of their God, but served to enlarge both. Remember, in the beginning there was but one rule; and that was proven so easy to play the devil with, that any snake could quickly do the job. What is more, imagine how Divine guidance might have been expanded at the time of the Tablets to include such admonitions as: Thou shalt not own slaves, Thou shall not make war, and Thou shall not shun the leper. Would the Children of God have seen Him as a greater or a lesser God as a result? Who doesn't know the answer? Indeed, in time all of these ideas have come to be accepted as worthy precepts for the moral conduct of life by these same Children of God. Of course, they are also often ignored, but that is another matter.
Now to the Market. The doctrinaire right see it as an inviolable and pristine beacon in an otherwise dark and perilous economic sea. They have absolute faith in it, they say. But in reality, they see it as susceptible to mortal failure from human contact. They exhibit fear and trepidation that any rule restraining or seeking to offset our base and willful instincts will destroy its capacity to provide us with abundant life. Experience has shown the opposite is true, just as in their other religious area of concern. What we suffer from is an insufficiency of rules to govern our relationships under a market economy. It has been shown how easily the devil can be played with the present ones. The dynamism of the market is not threatened by our efforts to insure that none is super empowered and none left destitute by its operation, nor any supremely exalted while others are abused. Just as The Children of God were told to go forth, be fruitful, and multiply in accordance with the proper code of conduct, the participants in a market economy can likewise invest, be productive, and prosper when the appropriate rules are in place and observed.
But when these two elements of their worldview are subjected to scrutiny, a great divergence is revealed. They display unshakable faith in the omnipotence of one religious object, and nothing but doubt and worry regarding the actual power of the other. The codification of strictures for appropriate conduct in one sphere does nothing to diminish its power to inform and enrich human life. But in the other, any requirement for humane conduct is seen ironically as a lethal threat to its capacity to provide for our well being.
Think of it this way: If the Children of God had not received the Tablets from the hand of Moses, they would have been destined to wander forever, blindly suffering self-inflicted cruelty after cruelty, insensible to the relief and comforts of God's infinite mercy. Rules certainly did not diminish the power and beneficence of their God, but served to enlarge both. Remember, in the beginning there was but one rule; and that was proven so easy to play the devil with, that any snake could quickly do the job. What is more, imagine how Divine guidance might have been expanded at the time of the Tablets to include such admonitions as: Thou shalt not own slaves, Thou shall not make war, and Thou shall not shun the leper. Would the Children of God have seen Him as a greater or a lesser God as a result? Who doesn't know the answer? Indeed, in time all of these ideas have come to be accepted as worthy precepts for the moral conduct of life by these same Children of God. Of course, they are also often ignored, but that is another matter.
Now to the Market. The doctrinaire right see it as an inviolable and pristine beacon in an otherwise dark and perilous economic sea. They have absolute faith in it, they say. But in reality, they see it as susceptible to mortal failure from human contact. They exhibit fear and trepidation that any rule restraining or seeking to offset our base and willful instincts will destroy its capacity to provide us with abundant life. Experience has shown the opposite is true, just as in their other religious area of concern. What we suffer from is an insufficiency of rules to govern our relationships under a market economy. It has been shown how easily the devil can be played with the present ones. The dynamism of the market is not threatened by our efforts to insure that none is super empowered and none left destitute by its operation, nor any supremely exalted while others are abused. Just as The Children of God were told to go forth, be fruitful, and multiply in accordance with the proper code of conduct, the participants in a market economy can likewise invest, be productive, and prosper when the appropriate rules are in place and observed.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Where's The Magic?
Do you believe in magic? I don't. But I do believe that some people are more dazzlingly and consistently right than others. I believe this results from being smart, learned, and open minded. In the field of economics, as always, I commend you to Mr. Paul Krugman. He and a very small number of other economists and public commentators have gotten virtually every call right about the current catastrophic downturn. Broadly speaking, they are all Keynesian in macroeconomic terms and Liberals. So, I lean heavily on his data and analysis. The following is taken from a recent post of his titled, The Defeatism of Depression.
"All around, right now, there are people declaring that our best days are behind us, that the economy has suffered a general loss of dynamism, that it’s unrealistic to expect a quick return to anything like full employment. There were people saying the same thing in the 1930s! Then came the approach of World War II, which finally induced an adequate-sized fiscal stimulus — and suddenly there were enough jobs, and all those unneeded and useless workers turned out to be quite productive, thank you.
There is nothing — nothing — in what we see suggesting that this current depression is more than a problem of inadequate demand. This could be turned around in months with the right policies. Our problem isn’t, ultimately, economic; it’s political, brought on by an elite that would rather cling to its prejudices than turn the nation around."
Once again, I believe Krugman has it exactly right. But what if both he and I are wrong, at least partially. Suppose that because of globalization or technological advancement or whatever, there really is a higher rate of natural unemployment. Say, instead of 4% it is now 8%. What then? Should we simply say to our fellow citizens and future generations, Just suffer, Baby?
Hell no. We should write new economic rules of the road, as have been promulgated to answer past crises. What is so magical about the 40 hour work week, the 8 hour day, retirement after 60, and a minimum wage so low workers need two jobs to rise above poverty? Nothing. But once upon a time, all these rules represented large steps forward. Now we need social progress to once again keep pace with technological advancement. We need stronger unions, higher wages, shorter work weeks and days, earlier retirement, more people employed under better conditions than ever before, and a much reduced rate of unemployment. It's not that we don't have the money, it's that we don't have enough of it.
"All around, right now, there are people declaring that our best days are behind us, that the economy has suffered a general loss of dynamism, that it’s unrealistic to expect a quick return to anything like full employment. There were people saying the same thing in the 1930s! Then came the approach of World War II, which finally induced an adequate-sized fiscal stimulus — and suddenly there were enough jobs, and all those unneeded and useless workers turned out to be quite productive, thank you.
There is nothing — nothing — in what we see suggesting that this current depression is more than a problem of inadequate demand. This could be turned around in months with the right policies. Our problem isn’t, ultimately, economic; it’s political, brought on by an elite that would rather cling to its prejudices than turn the nation around."
Once again, I believe Krugman has it exactly right. But what if both he and I are wrong, at least partially. Suppose that because of globalization or technological advancement or whatever, there really is a higher rate of natural unemployment. Say, instead of 4% it is now 8%. What then? Should we simply say to our fellow citizens and future generations, Just suffer, Baby?
Hell no. We should write new economic rules of the road, as have been promulgated to answer past crises. What is so magical about the 40 hour work week, the 8 hour day, retirement after 60, and a minimum wage so low workers need two jobs to rise above poverty? Nothing. But once upon a time, all these rules represented large steps forward. Now we need social progress to once again keep pace with technological advancement. We need stronger unions, higher wages, shorter work weeks and days, earlier retirement, more people employed under better conditions than ever before, and a much reduced rate of unemployment. It's not that we don't have the money, it's that we don't have enough of it.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Human Nature
Santa's gone, again. Whew ... hallelujah, just in time. I was about given out. Holidays are hard work.
Still, Christmas has always been my favorite time of year, and always will it be so. Even without small kids, even with the apprehensions and doubts of experience, even with the takings of time, even through the dour gaze beneath my ever more chiseled brow, it stands Shakespeare on his head. It is grand theatre well past imagining every hidden corner and surprising turn of the heart; it charges the heart to imagine its own mystery.
When it's gone, considerations of the present remain. So, what have we got? Herewith a quick rundown on what we've been trying to ignore and what it is time to face:
--- Republicans finally "lost" a high-profile showdown of sorts in the Congress. Never mind that their public complaint of dissatisfaction with a two month tax relief deal was obviously spot on correct from any logical standpoint. That was not the actual reason for the brief holdout. Alas, it never is. What they wanted was another pound of flesh out of the hides of the poor and the working class. This battle comes on. Stay tuned.
--- The Eurozone turmoil has gone into a period of relative quiescence. But the brutal moans of widespread pain and suffering by working people across the continent are about to sound forth. The temporary Christmas truce, like the famous one day battlefield event during WWI, will give way to raw struggle again as the hard facts of the ECB bailout of the eurozone banks in exchange for more economic contraction and hardship for the people is recognized.
---Then, there are the stunning and growing street protests in Russia. Not to mention Egypt. And, oh yes, the OWS campaign is not dead.
Meanwhile, the consumers here seem to be acting like the characters in the shopworn joke about campers stalked by a bear. One camper quickly laces on his boots, explaining to the other that he need not outrun the bear, just his fellow camper. Right now, those who have managed to avoid the shock of unemployment or its near term likelihood are behaving as though they have outrun their fellow workers. Now they can go shopping. It's human nature. Heaven help us all.
Still, Christmas has always been my favorite time of year, and always will it be so. Even without small kids, even with the apprehensions and doubts of experience, even with the takings of time, even through the dour gaze beneath my ever more chiseled brow, it stands Shakespeare on his head. It is grand theatre well past imagining every hidden corner and surprising turn of the heart; it charges the heart to imagine its own mystery.
When it's gone, considerations of the present remain. So, what have we got? Herewith a quick rundown on what we've been trying to ignore and what it is time to face:
--- Republicans finally "lost" a high-profile showdown of sorts in the Congress. Never mind that their public complaint of dissatisfaction with a two month tax relief deal was obviously spot on correct from any logical standpoint. That was not the actual reason for the brief holdout. Alas, it never is. What they wanted was another pound of flesh out of the hides of the poor and the working class. This battle comes on. Stay tuned.
--- The Eurozone turmoil has gone into a period of relative quiescence. But the brutal moans of widespread pain and suffering by working people across the continent are about to sound forth. The temporary Christmas truce, like the famous one day battlefield event during WWI, will give way to raw struggle again as the hard facts of the ECB bailout of the eurozone banks in exchange for more economic contraction and hardship for the people is recognized.
---Then, there are the stunning and growing street protests in Russia. Not to mention Egypt. And, oh yes, the OWS campaign is not dead.
Meanwhile, the consumers here seem to be acting like the characters in the shopworn joke about campers stalked by a bear. One camper quickly laces on his boots, explaining to the other that he need not outrun the bear, just his fellow camper. Right now, those who have managed to avoid the shock of unemployment or its near term likelihood are behaving as though they have outrun their fellow workers. Now they can go shopping. It's human nature. Heaven help us all.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Killing Time
This is not an excursion into extreme popular art, as threatened at the conclusion of the previous post. I'm not teasing, but that tour may yet come to a blog near you. And though it may somewhat seem so, this is not even a rehearsal. Still, I'm not just killing time, the times themselves are. Hip hop with me to the beat of what passes for and passes away in everyday life.
At the bottom, where class hardens into caste, kids - little kids - Sunday's kids are being mowed down at play by Friday's kids in the process of slaughtering one another in the cramped caged coliseum confining furiously fatal fights impelled by life's irresistible insistence to be realized.
Call it the underclass, the lumpen, the dissociated, the alienated, the marginalized, or whatever term of art you choose. Just don't call it the problem.
Let the puffed-up civil functionaries strut and strain and swear to solve that which can only be suppressed. The Mayor, the Police Chief, and others are elected, appointed, and paid to pretend that the human horror show produced by the remorseless grind of a severely striated society can be closed down by yanking a few bad actors off stage. But the huge cast of understudies anxious to audition for the starring parts are already made up.
And the theatre of poverty is growing and spreading by the day. It's insinuating itself into the neighborhoods of the formerly more settled, genteel and restrained classes. Folks who once were terrified by the idea that their kids were experimenting with marijuana, find themselves threatened by the bloody bluntness of violence and social decay. Still, they find it easier to assail their fellow victims than to stand together against the common oppressor.
Hence, the Tea Party founding activists were motivated by an angry resentment towards those whom they believed had irresponsibly indebted themselves when the real estate market crashed. This movement congealed to decry any demands for relief by these so-called scofflaws. Similarly, the OWS activists have been pilloried by many of their peers for not just quietly accepting a life of limited and declining economic opportunity. Be just like us, get over it, they say. You really are just a bunch of spoiled brats. The system was always top heavy and unjust. We can't do anything about it. Just shut-up, cry baby.
It is always easier to attack the powerless than to take on the power. But what does that get you? More of the same.
At the bottom, where class hardens into caste, kids - little kids - Sunday's kids are being mowed down at play by Friday's kids in the process of slaughtering one another in the cramped caged coliseum confining furiously fatal fights impelled by life's irresistible insistence to be realized.
Call it the underclass, the lumpen, the dissociated, the alienated, the marginalized, or whatever term of art you choose. Just don't call it the problem.
Let the puffed-up civil functionaries strut and strain and swear to solve that which can only be suppressed. The Mayor, the Police Chief, and others are elected, appointed, and paid to pretend that the human horror show produced by the remorseless grind of a severely striated society can be closed down by yanking a few bad actors off stage. But the huge cast of understudies anxious to audition for the starring parts are already made up.
And the theatre of poverty is growing and spreading by the day. It's insinuating itself into the neighborhoods of the formerly more settled, genteel and restrained classes. Folks who once were terrified by the idea that their kids were experimenting with marijuana, find themselves threatened by the bloody bluntness of violence and social decay. Still, they find it easier to assail their fellow victims than to stand together against the common oppressor.
Hence, the Tea Party founding activists were motivated by an angry resentment towards those whom they believed had irresponsibly indebted themselves when the real estate market crashed. This movement congealed to decry any demands for relief by these so-called scofflaws. Similarly, the OWS activists have been pilloried by many of their peers for not just quietly accepting a life of limited and declining economic opportunity. Be just like us, get over it, they say. You really are just a bunch of spoiled brats. The system was always top heavy and unjust. We can't do anything about it. Just shut-up, cry baby.
It is always easier to attack the powerless than to take on the power. But what does that get you? More of the same.
Monday, December 19, 2011
Barnum Meets Bailey
Send in the clowns, again. That's the call from John Boehner to Harry Reid, anyway. In the previous post we described the absurdity of crafting a tax policy - any tax policy - with a two month expiration date. As of last Friday, just such a silly policy had been agreed upon among John Boehner, Harry Reid, and the U.S. Senate (by a vote of 89-10). But the wild animals in the House rebelled this weekend, and refused to perform to the whistle and whip of Mr. Boehner. Now, he is calling for Ring Master Reid in the other tent to bring the clowns back for an encore.
Problem is the the other tent folded and left town for the holidays, after voting in favor of the absurd. Now, clowns like Senator Schumer of New York and other red noses are threatening not to return for an extended engagement, so as to make the point that Boehner and his Animal House Republicans are unfit to govern. Oh, well. Or rather, Orwell.
Next post I'm thinking of taking on a couple of more enlightening topics: Punk Rock and Tatts. If it happens, it will be an evening show, no matinees. You're all invited.
Problem is the the other tent folded and left town for the holidays, after voting in favor of the absurd. Now, clowns like Senator Schumer of New York and other red noses are threatening not to return for an extended engagement, so as to make the point that Boehner and his Animal House Republicans are unfit to govern. Oh, well. Or rather, Orwell.
Next post I'm thinking of taking on a couple of more enlightening topics: Punk Rock and Tatts. If it happens, it will be an evening show, no matinees. You're all invited.
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