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Not-quite-nightmares
Sep. 29th, 2008 06:23 amLast night, Brian and I spent some time discussing the dissolution of the financial sector. Not with any real purpose in mind - I mean, neither of us can really do much about it, and fortunately we haven't had much in the way of investments to be concerned about (hurrah FDIC protection for savings accounts). Mostly, it was just the sheer level of helplessness we felt over the whole situation - even though it only affects us peripherally, it's still affecting us, and of course people we know are affected much more strongly. And as Brian put it, "These people are the financiers: the (mostly) men who run the world through the power of money. That's why we give them this much money. And suddenly they're telling us that they've lost all of our money, through utterly preventable means, simply because not a single one of them said 'No, that's an unsustainable investment model'? 'Yes, that will get us all fabulously rich but will destroy the system beneath us'? 'No, we have a responsibility to the government, or barring that, our investors, not to run headlong over a cliff and take the entire American economy with us'?"
While the discussion was purely academic in nature, I think a lot of the deep-seated anxiety bled through into my subconscious, because I didn't sleep well last night. I kept having dreams of an impending alien invasion of an unknown sort, and even though no aliens had actually shown up, and indeed there hadn't been any indication of an invasion past some mysterious decoded messages (sent, appropriately enough, through the stock market), the entire world was unraveling as terror rippled through the strata of society.
I think that, in the end, is what scares me the most - not that some mysterious external (or internal) force, no matter how powerful, will come and wipe us out, but that people will become afraid that such will happen. Because that kind of widespread panic is far, far more likely to have immediate negative ramifications for human society, and all that we have built, than some shadowy outside threat that may or may not ever materialize.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
While the discussion was purely academic in nature, I think a lot of the deep-seated anxiety bled through into my subconscious, because I didn't sleep well last night. I kept having dreams of an impending alien invasion of an unknown sort, and even though no aliens had actually shown up, and indeed there hadn't been any indication of an invasion past some mysterious decoded messages (sent, appropriately enough, through the stock market), the entire world was unraveling as terror rippled through the strata of society.
I think that, in the end, is what scares me the most - not that some mysterious external (or internal) force, no matter how powerful, will come and wipe us out, but that people will become afraid that such will happen. Because that kind of widespread panic is far, far more likely to have immediate negative ramifications for human society, and all that we have built, than some shadowy outside threat that may or may not ever materialize.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
