Having spent some years in the acute hospital business, I had the occasion to read the book by Kubler--Ross called "On Death and Dying"---and she labeled four steps of grief in loss and proposed that they were in the sequence--Denial, Anger, Bargaining, and Acceptance.
When one gets to retirement, one has seen over the years lots of losses---lives, jobs, careers, hopes, etc....and one thing I have concluded is that there is not a specific sequence---it is more like all the three---Denial, Anger and Bargaining are like a jugglers sticks tossed in the air----and I notice that the public right now is doing a lot of juggling---anger is pretty intense.
In the bargaining juggler hoop, is all the discussion of "It's not me"---let the cuts to the budget come from somebody else---not me, Lord," Municipalities, Legislatures, Colleges, Lawyers, Government officials, Professors, etc. all mouthe that the recession and temporary employment, poor wages, struggle is fine for the victims in the retail sector, or the manufacturing sector, but--heaven forbid if one should touch them. This is bargaining at its best.
Mention in mixed company how in the future, college tuition will fall, as families cannot pay the ever increasing tuition and loans, despite the wonderful italian tile in the entre area of the spanking new athletic facilities that every college in the nation has built to be "competitive." The numbers no longer compute. Families will--I predict---choose more affordable options such as technical schools that can provide a faster payback for the investment. Families are already making these moves and they will accelerate.
When will the acceptance come? In the book, "The Crash" John Kenneth Galbraith asserted that the major cause of the Great Depression was the inequality of wealth in America----many folks denied this. President Obama has said in speeches that this is correct---and he has an agenda to create an economic climate where the consumer will have the money to purchase goods again.
When we all get it and pitch in, just as was done in the 30's, things will get better. I think it means stopping all the ranting, and going back to work to fashion together a solution. That Acceptance is on the horizon.
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I agree with everything except the last paragraph. There is no work out there to be done. It is beyond desperate right now. Most people who had been working, want substantive work, but where? I feel they are angry as a defense mechanism to tide them over. You can't deny the wolf at your door, you can't bargain if you have no leverage, and to accept your fate is to give up.
ReplyDeleteDenial with a touch of anger is my key right now. I choose to believe Andy Kaufman is still alive.
Rather agree with Matt.
ReplyDeleteAs far as dealing with this mess goes we are still have a long way to go to get to "acceptance". Almost all people are strictly in "denial", and only those unfortunately forced by circumstance to abandon "denial" are unwillingly being forced into "anger", as Matt expresses well in his post above.
The most obvious evidence of my case is the magical thinking behind the hope that a political messiah will save us, the Obama fantasy. This is denial, pure and simple.
The correct translation of "Gung Ho" is "seeking harmony". Obviously we must be able to work together to clean up this mess and build a new economy sufficient for our needs. This means we must "seek harmony". Unfortunately, this is exactly the political program that Hitler sold to the the Germans so successfully.
As a student of history I have always been fascinated by "democratic centralism" and how easy it is to persuade the people that they want to be ruled with a rod of iron. Examine the books of Samuel where he cautions the Israelites not to empower a king. Read Cicero, the Declaration of Arbroath, the documents of the American founding generation, and many others.
These are most perilous times. Risk is very high. The people are responding to reality as does a crowd, and a crowd does not think.
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