Hell, it's safe to say a felonious, seven-time baby-making crack whore on state aid would be a better government, a better corporation, and — dare I say it — a better America. She certainly could do no worse. Between our government and corporate America, we've seen every aspect of the safe sex, anti-drug use, and scared straight warnings illustrated in a way that public service campaigners could only dream of: you'll lose your job, your home, your car, and your family.
How the hell is it, though, that these same people still have any self-respect and aren't going to jail? It's as if crack pipes, condoms, and would-be convicts are all over Wall Street like the result of some sick-ass ticker tape parade. Corruption is too easy an explanation because it doesn't explain the intensity and depth of so much having gone wrong. The better, and only, explanation is that we have all become children of an almighty crack whore.
Somehow we were all reborn as addicted babies and have acted accordingly. Despite our being adults, we have resigned ourselves to depend upon whatever our drunk and drugged up mother's teat deems to give us. Her milk used to be bittersweet. Now it's just bitter. Keep suckling and you'll die. Pull away and you'll have to make it the best way you can despite the neglect, malnutrition, and brain damage you've suffered.
Alas, just as the addict has no sense of self-awareness, our government and corporate America have allowed themselves to become so caught up in the dark side that they have no idea, nor do they care, that they have no self-respect or that an entire economy depended on them and is now perishing. Hell, even those who did manage to pull away and who no longer depend on anyone else are being shot down in corporate drive-bys as deals go wrong and are taken to the open streets in broad daylight.
Just as the young, misguided teenager thinks her entire self-worth is wrapped up in what her boyfriend thinks of her, so has our government and corporate America come to think its entire self-worth is wrapped up in the amount of money made - more specifically, not made. If what the government and corporate America is doing is not classic addict behavior, I'll eat your crack pipe.
The most tragic part of this economic debacle is that the wrong people are killing themselves over their financial strife. I long for the days when those with more money than would fit in their 20-car garages hurl themselves from their office towers and land with a splat on the cold, hard reality of the Wall Street's asphalt. I long for the days when every large business has the same rights and responsibilities (and can expect as much or as little assistance from the government) as Joe's Car Wash, Harry's Plumbing, and Sally's Hair Salon. I wish for the separation between right and responsibility to end. It's been so long, I'm well nigh onto having romanticized visions of how it was and how it could be.
Article comments
1 - Joanne Huspek
Diana, well put. You said everything I am feeling, and more.
2 - bliffle
Good article Diana.
3 - Cindy D
Diana,
When I took a black and white photography class years ago, I learned that the best photographs could be described with one word--compelling.
When I apply this to writing, I think the best writing can be described with one word--provocative.
To me, your piece is a perfect example of those things. That is some amazing writing. It has inspired me to think.
4 - Clavos
It has inspired me to think.
Damn, Cindy! You sure do leave some tempting straight lines... :>)
5 - Realist
Excellent commentary, Diana! I wonder if our neo-con co-contributors to Blogcritics would take your facts into account when they try to support the current economic conditions as being justified and correct. Somehow, I doubt it.
Your analogy of addicts and their addictions is an apt one. The only problem with this approach is that the tough love gets applied to the enablers and not the addicts. I don't know where the funds will come from to cover the losses and to support those whose retirement funds have been stolen, other than to come from those of us who played by the rules and did the things we were told were correct. Even we get to suffer the consequences.
As for wishing that the perpetrators experience asphalt reality at the end of a swift decline, why would you allow them the opportunity to escape the consequences of their actions? They should have to work all day and every day for the rest of their miserable lives at a soup kitchen which keeps the victims of their excesses alive. They should have to act as medics for those whose healthcare went into the kitty, and have to construct shelters for those who lost theirs. Maybe then they will have begun to atone for their sins. Maybe.
6 - Cindy D
LOL @ Clav :-)
7 - Ruvy
Diana,
Your article and that of Realist on Atonement may be the hopeful beginnings of a very hard look at what your country has done - both to the world and to its own citizenry.
It is not for me to draw up a moral inventory of what your nation has done. It is for you. You live there. And the courage to draw up that moral inventory, and the honesty that you draw it up with, is what will save those of you who survive the maelstrom that is coming our way.
I offer you the same advice that I offered him. Find a Yom Kippur prayer book and look up the detailed confession found there and learn it. Knowing it will serve you in good stead in the near future.
Have a good week,
Ruvy
8 - diana hartman
well ruvy, and realist for that matter, it is my firm belief that perpetrators of any kind (who have made it abundantly clear that is all they are and nothing more) are doing the world a favor by killing themselves...short of that, it should be our obligation to exterminate those who, again, have made it clear they serve (or will serve) no purpose but to exploit, rob and drain off of the rest of us...
there is no appropriate or rehabilitative punishment that will redeem the sordid - as there is no redemption...there is no penace, as they are not remorseful, won't change how they do things, and would do what they do again if/when given the chance...
let them -- they who would see us slammed into a wall and think nothing of it -- eat asphalt...if by their own hands, so be it...
9 - moon
Perhaps firing squads should be revived?
10 - Lisa Solod Warren
Beautiful work, Diana. Beautiful. We have missed you during your absence. You should send this around elsewhere....It's amazing!!!!!
11 - Xpressions
I agree, the socialist illuminati in our government have became so relax with welfare. It's a shame at all they are giving these people who have kids by deadbeats and drug dealers, and don't want to work. So we not only have to take care of our families, but their families as well. That is not fair, and it needs to be cut across the board!
12 - bliffle
Hmmm. Are the heads of our major financial institutions all "...deadbeats and drug dealers, and don't want to work."?