With Christmas gone and New Year’s on the horizon, almost no one in my immediate circle is really happy.
I will spare you the usual self-flagellation about how Americans and other citizens of developed countries don’t appreciate how truly privileged we are.
It seems with our hot running water and relative freedom of speech, though, comes the burden of expectations which in this day and age, few of us can hope to fulfill.
It seems to take a whole lot of luck rather than hard work to feel comfortable with oneself and secure in one’s community.
Luck starts, for women anyway, with being the “right” physical type for whatever fashion era you’re born into. It continues, for everyone, regardless of gender, as the consequences of choices, some of which may not be under your control at all.
For example, a few years ago, most everyone was advised to retool their skills and get a career in technology. A lot of people took out student loans and incurred other forms of indebtedness to get those skills.
Now, Forrester and the DOL are predicting that half a million technology jobs will be offshored in the next 10 years or so.
It’s not just manufacturing and tech jobs that are predicted to disappear: the casualties will include lawyers, architects, accountants, artists, sales people and office staff: over 3.3 million jobs in all.
In other words, those of us who did our homework, maintained a good attendance record, and got achievement awards in school are being suckered into economic oblivion. As a friend of mine put it, the ghetto was right: the only people with real job security are gangsters and drug dealers.
The macroeconomic assault on the American middle class by the Bush administration and its corporate croneys is enough to depress anyone who is cognizant, and I won’t rehash those any further.
Rather, I am starting to notice that what we do on a personal level, as family members, neighbors, employees, business owners, citizens or friends, doesn’t earn us the love of our family and the respect of our peers, either. At least, I don’t think we can merit the good will of others through good deeds, deliberate actions or a solid character.
Rather, I think whether or not we are esteemed and respected is a consequence of pure, dumb luck. The reason is because nowadays, only “perfection” is acceptable. And here’s the kicker: because everyone’s notion of perfection is different, and often inscrutable, you can only hope to achieve it by stumbling on it.
That applies to how your boss feels about you, how your spouse and kids feel about you, and how your neighbors and social acquaintances feel about you. There are no universals, rather vague prejudices, opinions and attitudes, the “I can tell a lot about a man by how he looks” school of “thought”.
If I’m right, then you can throw out just about everything you learned in kindergarten that was supposed to socialize you into a responsible member of society: your ability to be successful is a random walk, and Horatio Alger has been traded in for a lottery ticket.
What this means for the upcoming Presidential election, the education of our youth and other weighty matters, I’m not sure. Does the absence of a common notion of tolerance and respectable behavior lead to chaos in our legal and judicial system? Did a similar lack of coherence rather than corruption topple Babylon and Rome?