You may know him from the twenty dollar bill, but that may be a fleeting glance. These bills come and go from our lives and there is only so much that you can tell from them. The engraver put a bit of sadness into Jackson’s eyes, a sense of weight that doesn’t quite seem right. Wasn’t he a man of determination and strength? Yet the portrait is accurate in its own way, telling us about the legacy of Jackson that is harder to bear than the man himself. In Jackson’s story, we have the story of our people.
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Yearly Archives: 2009
A Fireside Chat
History doesn’t repeat itself. As the cycles rise and fall there are always different circumstances, new actors and a different spirit in the people. Somehow, it seems, we even learn a thing or two along the way. As we confront the possibility of a new Depression we can see that our leaders are responding to it in a way that may make all the difference. First, however, it’s good to take a look back at what worked the last time – and what didn’t.
Build a Better Tomorrow
Things rarely go as planned. I was hoping to move from my analysis explaining the current Depression (or potential Depression) into some solutions. Along the way, I realized that most of my solutions were rather vague, which is to say a lot like FDR’s plan. Since I don’t expect anyone to believe I have anything in common with FDR (other than being a terrier owner), it seemed like time to punt. Beyond that, it became very clear to me that people do not understand why a heavy reliance on finance is such a bad thing. So here we go.
The Long View
I tend to take the long view on things. Granted, I like to eat every day and I have bad habits that make me act in the shockingly short term. When it comes time to explain things, however, all the pleasure and gratification seeking behaviors of people happen in response to some kind of social construction. We dare not act too far out of line for fear of losing everything we have in money, status, and all the other things that we use to get our kicks. Transformations take place generationally because we grow up with ideas about pleasure and guilt, wrong and right that are comfortable. Things don’t just change overnight because we don’t change that quickly.
Reading is Writing
Think about your favorite book, newspaper article, or any writing that really stands out to you. What is it that you remember? It’s probably not a bunch of symbols on page or the smell and texture of the paper and ink. What you likely remember are images that are precious to you, the feeling and mood that is in your mind alone. How did that get there?
Barataria - The work of Erik Hare 