Altruism and The Natural Order

I’m reading my first Stephen King novel. It’s kind of odd, in that I feel as though I’ve read so many of them already – horror staples of my life, like Carrie, Cujo, Christine, Children of the Corn, and that’s just the “C”s – and yet, this is actually the first time I’ve ever read the prose of the man. This book is also a “C” story. It’s called “Cell”, and without giving anything away, it takes a look at a complete meltdown of our modern social structure as seen through the eyes of (surprise, surprise) a graphics novelist from Maine, who finds himself stuck in the middle of Boston, when the whole damn place comes unhinged around him.

I’m only at page 53, so who knows where this thing is headed, but so far, I’ve gotten a taste of Boylston Street at Arlington in front of the Four Seasons Hotel in full conflagration – not the worst visual I’ve ever entertained – with people basically tearing each other’s throats out in random mayhem. And no, the WTO isn’t a part of any of this. This is a Stephen King novel. It’s not an Ann Coulter wet dream of tree hugging leftists finally unleashing the true evil insanity that lurks within. It is, however, a pretty chilling reminder that our world of stop lights, crosswalks, and right-of-way, is dependent on the premise that signs, lights and painted lines on asphalt have the power to keep disaster from becoming a part of our daily lives.

Interestingly, things weren’t always as predictable and stable as we’ve come to assume them to be. Even in this land of unrestrained opportunity, there have been times when the balance between freedom and responsibility tipped perilously to a point where one or the other threatened to bring it all down around the heads of those whose only duty was to ensure that it remained intact for us, the future of their America. One such time was the Great Depression of the 1930’s.

Now, we’ve all heard both sides of the story on FDR and the New Deal, and how he either saved us in our darkest hour, or he destroyed us with the creation of the Welfare State in America. There are points to be made from each side of the divide, but what I want to take a look at, is what may have inspired the creation of the US version of the benevolent malignancy of state mandated altruism. 

Can you imagine being in charge of a nation where 25 – 35 percent of the workforce was idle? Now imagine that all these workers, and their families, had no mechanism available to prevent further suffering, like homelessness, starvation, rampant disease, and the kinds of horrors that parade themselves through the lives of the destitute on this planet. That’s pretty bad, but now imagine that the other 65 – 75 percent of the population is in desperate fear of joining the cursed in their hell of extreme poverty at every turn of their daily lives. Can you imagine an entire 100% of the people under your rule being in that kind of daily existential terror?

If you can’t imagine that, or more likely, if you refuse to accept the premise, then try to imagine this:

35 percent of the population suddenly deciding to simply take what the other 65 percent have, after being presented with no alternative but to do so out of sheer survival.

It’d never happen – right? American citizens would choose to go to their graves before they’d cross against the light, or drive the wrong direction down a one-way street, or tear your throat out to have what they need to feed themselves and their families?

So, what planet do you live on when you’re not visiting planet Earth?

That Stephen King novel’s opening scene might be a little over the top, and its carnage isn’t triggered by anything as mundane as wholesale poverty’s legions coming to terms with the fact that no one gives a damn about them and their inability to succeed in a sparkling world of pure competition, but it does give one a glimpse into how fragile civilization actually is. Even this civilization that we embrace as the last, best hope for mankind.

The last 7 years have been a study in what can be achieved if you’re smart, aggressive, and personally connected to the folks who were able to bully their way to the head of the class. It’s been quite the revelation, and we’re in the middle of an unprecedented political primary season as a result of what we’ve learn about how well true capitalism serves the needs of the people who actually make up the bulk of the society that feeds that capitalism and allows it to survive.

Back in the 30’s, capitalism came really close to being grabbed by its fat-marbled neck, and wrung out by some extremely potent ideologies that appeared to at least care about serving the needs of the people who gathered at their feet as they made their cases for ascendency. FDR had no choice but to put a safety net under the poorest of the poor, when it came right down to it. He was a rich man, and he was as far removed from the suffering of those wretches as anyone could ever be, but he was also a man who could recognize a heads-up when he saw one. Such as the heads-up coming from Russia, as the revolution that had transformed hundreds of years of stable Czarist domination overnight, began its spread across Europe and into the western hemisphere. Give them a safety net or suffer the consequences. It was a deal he couldn’t refuse, and thank God he was smart enough to realize it.

So, here we are today, with more billionaires that ever before – as well as more widespread poverty and economic failure than we’ve seen since those dark days of the Great Depression’s heavy hand on the shoulder of Franklin Roosevelt. I heard a jovial ad this morning about a 1-800 number you could call to take advantage of a glut of foreclosed houses, and get them for pennies on the dollar. As if this was a good thing for the average home buyer in search of their own personal American dream. Yeah, maybe getting a house in recession-ravaged Ohio for only 20 to 30 thousand bucks is a dream come true, but that dream comes at the price of someone else’s nightmare, and I, for one, believe in the ghosts of tragedy lingering at the scene of the crime after the corpses have all been carted away and the floors washed down. That 20 thousand dollar steal of a house belongs to someone else’s hell, and painting over what went down there won’t turn it into my dream home regardless of what nuggets of enlightened pragmatism tumble from the mouth of the high priest of plutocratic supremacy as he blesses the dump on my behalf.

The truth is that what we have, we have by the beneficence of the worst among us. The poorest, and the most reviled of our numbers have the God-given right to do what they see fit to do, to have what it is that they decide that they want to have. The stop signs can’t stop them, and the laws that we look to for assurance can only assign the blame in the event of a full frontal assault on what we’ve come to assume is the natural order of things. In truth, the natural order involves taking what one wants, and whatever one wants, to the extent that one can successful take it. There is no other natural order, and if the 80 percent of those who lack, decide to one day reach out and take what the other 20 percent have, there’s not much that anyone will be able to do about it.

I mean, think about it. The main strength of our military can’t even keep a lid on Baghdad. And if you think that the police could bring it all back under control, then take a moment to scroll through some of the news items that came out of New Orleans during the 5 days of hell that those poor souls endured. It doesn’t take long for a wholesale collapse of order to get way beyond the Thin Blue Line. You see, they call it the Thin Blue Line because it’s only a line, and it’s really, really thin. Without the agreement of the governed – and at all levels of economic existence – this entire society stands at the brink with all its toes stretching out into the void and its head swimming with a vertigo that threatens to pitch it forward out of a sheer lack of gyroscopic stability.

Here’s to hoping that our next batch of leaders have the pragmatic sense of responsibility that Franklin Roosevelt had, back when he led us all down that slippery slope to the Nanny State that so many of us rail against. In the 1980’s movie “Wall Street”, Gordon Gecko quipped “Greed is good.” to a generation of salivating young professional predators, and maybe he was right. However, blind greed – the kind that traps the monkey to the jar as the foolish creature refuses to release the apple holding its hand within its confines – isn’t good. In fact, it’s a lot like that little monkey who surrenders his freedom for the fruit that he can’t bear to let go of, and can’t pull through the opening of the jar. 

There are many, many millions of us who have lost our ability to believe that this society cares about our futures, and the futures of our families. We’ve lost our ability to explain away the brittle reality of those with so much regarding us with such overt contempt due to the simple fact that they won and we lost in that one small arena involving acquisition. We’ve tried, and failed, to take the blame for our lot, as time after time, we’ve seen how bluntly the surface has been altered to favor the privileged few at the expense of the many. Basically, we’ve lost our capacity to allow our beneficence to cause any more injury to ourselves and to those that we love and have pledged our lives to.

To the rich and powerful, let me say this one thing, and say it only once. The last 7 years are yours, and we’ll let you have them at no charge. You’ve done well with those years, and we’ll let you keep what you’ve been able to gather together. We’ll even clean up the mess that you and yours have left behind in your hurry to get as much as possible before losing it to some other among your ranks. In essence, you’re free to go away now, and live out your lives in freedom and peace.

However, if you choose to remain here, and choose to continue the feeding frenzy of the last 7 years, be advised that our offer of amnesty will be immediately revoked, and all that you’ve taken from us will be taken back by us. And that only pertains to the wealth and spoils. Your very existence will become ours to determine as well. As will that of those who have been beneficiary to your wholesale greed.

You think I’m kidding? Look around you as walk from your cars to your restaurants and office buildings. We’re right there as you make your hurried way toward yet another important meeting. We’re always there, and we’ll always be there. We’re one million times your number, and the only reason you still exist is because we allow you to exist. That could change at any moment, and no poll or market research team will ever give you the straight up on this like I’m doing for you right now. 

The natural order is savage, and it’s brilliantly decisive.

Never forget that.