A Dumbed-Down Civilization
by
John Maxwell
This article originally appeared in Jamaica Observer.
My late great friend and neighbor, Mavis Virtue was fond of
saying that most people's heads existed merely as decorative accents at the
ends of their spinal columns, rather like finials on gateposts. We were discussing the reasons most people seemed to
lack bullshit detectors and persisted
in falling for baubles, bangles, beads and similarly meretricious inducements.
If something seems too good to be true, like Anansi's generosity or a
perpetual motion machines, it probably was. We were at the time discussing the South Sea Bubble and
other manic events when reason went absent without leave (AWOL) and people
threw good money after lunatic schemes.
When I first heard about our brand new investment schemes
which returned money like a one armed bandit with its innards in an endless
loop I told my wife simply that anything that seemed too good to be true almost
certainly was too good to be true. The willing suspension of disbelief helps
when we're watching Othello or listening to a DJ boast about his "conquests"
but one knows that reality will soon supervene and that the whole thing was
imaginary.
"The company expected to deliver English wool and other
manufactures, to be repaid in gold."
The South Sea Bubble was a gigantic stock market speculation
that began when the South
Sea Company bought the British government's outstanding short-term war
debts, not funded by a specific tax, to be converted into equity in a new
joint-stock company. Briefly, the South Sea Company bought the British national
debt, expecting two things- a return of 6 percent and a monopoly on trade with
the South Seas, i.e Latin America. There, the company expected to deliver
English wool and other manufactures, to be repaid in gold by the benighted
inhabitants for whom Axminster carpets and woolen blankets were obviously worth
more than gold. The company, it was said, could not fail
The problem with this expected monopoly was that it did not
exist. The King of Spain hadn't been consulted and made it known that there
would be no monopoly of trade for anyone and in fact, instead of the fleets of
ships carrying gold back to Britain he would allow only three or four British
ships a year into his colonies.
That didn't stop the speculation. The South Sea Company's
shares rose and kept on rising and their success stimulated other speculators
and fraudists who set up thousands of companies for a variety of purposes
including such esoteric enterprises as one to distill sunshine from vegetables
and the classic "an enterprise whose purpose shall in due time be
revealed." It made no sense but people threw their money into the bubbling
pot, borrowing money to make fools of themselves.
Sir Isaac Newton, one of its victims, had realized early on
that the bubble was just that and took his money out, making a profit of
£7,000. Unfortunately the bubble continued for so long that against his better
judgment, he put in another £20,000 and lost all of it. He was led to muse, "I
can calculate the motions of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people."
Nobody noticed when Spain and England went to war again and
reality clocked in only when the promoters of the South Sea Company realized
that their company would never have assets matching their investment and sold
out. This of course, precipitated a crash heard round the world. During the
mania the government even passed a law (the Bubble Act) making it an offence
for a company to do anything that was not in its original charter.
The bursting of the Bubble meant ruin for masses of people
and for several generations its reverberations continued to be felt. Britain's
blossoming into the financial center of the known universe was postponed.
I was reminded of all this by a curious text message I
received on my cell phone on Wednesday. It read in its entirety:
CASH PLUS XMAS BONANZA. CALL620 4506 REFER AND
GET:5PPL.W/END @ HILLSHIRE MOBAY A CAR DOWNPAYMENT; 40 PPL HOME DOWN PAYMENT.
It would seem that Cash Plus needs more people, investors,
to generate cash flow. If I manage to bring in five people I will get a reward
of the downpayment on a car and 40 people will produce a downpayment on a
house. Just what these down-payments are valued at is not noted. I have decided
after mature consideration that this offer is too good to be true.
None of
the Above
"The Republican Presidential candidates were falling over
each other to declare how anti-anything they are on the agenda of the civilized
world since 1776."
Watching last week's televised debate between the US
Republican Party's presidential aspirants made me realize to what profound
depths the level of American politics has fallen. Apart from Ron Paul, the
Great Unknown, it seemed almost impossible to get a straight answer out of
anyone. John McCain, as expected, was righteous and right on the question of
torture, magisterially rebuking Mitt Romney for his reptilian evasion of the
question of whether "waterboarding" is torture.
Mr. Romney, whose father was I believe an honest man, was
unable to say what he thought about waterboarding, preferring to defer his
conscience until he had had a chance to talk to military advisers if he ever
became President. As a "presidential
candidate" he thought it impolitic to declare that a practice condemned by
all civilized people, prohibited by the Geneva Convention, was torture. I
believe that torture is just as much an offense to human dignity as Mr. Romney
himself.
Mr. Mike Huckabee, rapidly gaining strength at the expense
of his mealy-mouthed opponents, scared the daylights out of me when he said he
would abolish the Internal Revenue Service in favor of a so-called "Fair
Tax" - in reality a super sales tax which would impoverish the poor and
fatten the wealthy.
Someone needs to remind Americans that they are supposedly
disciples of Adam Smith who, fifty years after the South Sea Bubble, gave it as
his opinion that the wealthy should pay a sort of ground rent for the
opportunities they have in becoming rich. I quoted him two weeks ago in my
column "Self-Inflicted Wounds":
"The
subjects of every state ought to contribute toward the support of the
government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities;
that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the
protection of the state" - Adam
Smith, An Inquiry Into The Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, 1776.
The Republican Presidential candidates were falling over
each other to declare how anti-human they were, anti-immigrant (Mexican)
anti-welfare (blacks) anti-education (everybody) and apparently
anti-anything on the agenda of the civilized world since 1776. In any European
country and in a majority of developing countries their opinions would be
greeted by disbelief, contempt and probably, rotten eggs and tomatoes.
"The ‘Fair Tax' is in reality a super sales tax which
would impoverish the poor and fatten the wealthy."
The brontosaurian Fred Thompson delivered it as his opinion
that people should be able to fly the Confederate flag privately but not publicly
for fear of giving offense. Everyone paid homage to Ronald Reagan, that
intellectual giant of the Republican Party.
I am old enough to remember the Barry Goldwater campaign of
1964 when the world looked on with astonishment at the Neanderthal politics of
the Senator from Arizona. This was worse.
The Press, of course, is a prime culprit in these
developments. I know that television is basically aimed at people well below
the age of consent, but this debate really brought home to me how much American
civilization has been devalued in a relatively short time. It was instructive
to hear one Republican voter in a Florida focus group assembled by CNN, a
middle aged woman who had come expecting to make up her mind on a Republican
candidate. When she was asked after the debate who she favored she answered
that she was thinking about voting for John Edwards. My sentiments exactly.
The Press or the Media as it is now fashionably called,
has dumbed down the politics of the American people by mischief-making, trivializing
important matters and distorting the views of anyone to the left of Winston
Churchill. In fact, Winston Churchill's welfare reforms would probably not pass
muster in the corridors of TIME Inc or the Washington Post. Richard Nixon is
rightly reviled for his dishonesty, but I feel that some of the obloquy heaped
on him is because he was actually, a relatively civilized human being compared
to some of his successors.
Adam Smith
redux
While American markets, financial, commodity and other, are
braced for weeks and months of turmoil consequent of the meltdown in the
sub-prime mortgage market, some people are as happy as pigs in a wallow. It has
been announced that the bankers and traders of Goldman Sachs, the investment
bankers, are to share a bonus pot of US$18 billion this Christmas. They will
get bonuses equivalent to nearly twice the national income of Bolivia.
Obviously these guys have worked really hard.
John Maxwell is a veteran Jamaican journalist, activist and
conservationist. He can be contacted at jankunnu@gmail.com.
Copyright ©2007 John Maxwell
“...white paranoia is here to stay/The white boy's scheming night and day/What you think about the King Alfred Plan?”
“Ethiopia just changed the continent of Africa forever.” - African development economist and electricity activist
"Department of War: What’s new is so old" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
Turning the Caribbean into a US bombing range requires local collaborators. Neocolonial governments have volunteered to play this role, betraying their people's right to peace and sovereignty.
The Africa Climate Summit is a greenwashing front for a new wave of colonialism. Under the guise of "nature-based solutions," corporations like the Gates Foundation are pushing schemes that will turn…
