Great American Detox, By Mark Morford

[madokie]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/04/15/notes041509.DTL&nl=fix

Which is better: To be rich 'n' slothful, or lean 'n' panicky?

The stories just keep coming, a veritable flood of sad and harrowing tales of layoffs, shutdowns, rising unemployment, personal woe, sudden homelessness, savage poverty and all manner of fiscal trembling across the roiling global moneysphere.

It can seem as brutal as a kitten caught in a grain thresher: Lots of depression, anxiety, psychotic weeping on Fox News and talk of right-wing nutballs buying more guns as "recession porn" takes hold and we become morbidly fascinated with just how harshly the global meltdown is affecting, say, the elderly, or schools, hotels, florists, baristas, hookers, graduates, car salesmen, God -- all those shiny happy things we used to love but which now seem to hiss at us as we walk by in our scruffy, worn-out shoes.

But wait. Shift your lens a moment. Because at nearly every turn and almost every story, the vicious and the sad seem counterbalanced by rather astonishing tales of revolution and upheaval, opportunity and change, fresh seedlings of good birthed from the charred forests of bad.

From the ashes, multiple phoenix. From the Bush, the Obama. From the realization that we're long overdue for a wake-up call and a grand social emetic, the rare and precious chance to slap ourselves awake before it's too late, even though it probably is. ...

[Peace Patriot]

1. Great commentary! The first I've seen that connects the personal--at least

the personal of a certain class of people (the well-fed)--to the national, global and cosmic meltdown that is teaching us all lessons that we might not have otherwise learned.

It edges on the...exclusive, oblivious, "let them eat cake" kind of commentary, but doesn't quite fall over the cliff. I mean, what do the folks in the Bushvilles all around the land care about fad diets (or even good spiritual/physical cleansings)? They would be lucky to get--and happy to get--a Big Mac, however poisonous it may be. Or government cheese. Or whatever comes their way. They are jobless, homeless and hungry. They can't buy newspapers to read clever commentary, and don't have computers. So this is written for a certain class, and, as such, it's interesting--bracing, a "wake up call." There is a way to face hardship that can improve your life--your physical and spiritual well-being--and can strengthen communities and nations. I do think that is true, for all classes of people.