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I’m becoming convinced that history will record the causes of the fall of the American Empire the way that Edward Gibbon records the fall of Rome.
So I thought as I left Best Buy today...No, really.
But briefly, back to Rome and its fall: For it, Gibbon blames Christianity (at least in part – and immigration, too). Christ’s preachings were, in 0 A.D., the degenerate rantings of a most unpopular cult (a mutant variant of the equally unpopular Judaism). But in a a few centuries, the “Good News” religion had become the populist rebuttal to the bureaucratic corruption that was ruining the Empire.
The inheritors of Christianity, the Popes in Rome, would soon bring their own versions of peccadillo, perversion and scandal to Europe that would have made Caligula blush, (and Nero remorseful, for not having thought of it himself…) But never-mind. Christianity was here to stay.
Back to Best Buy.
On my journey to the world of plastic today, I noticed that among the monkey-paw-sized hi-fi receivers and video display units on display, none that I looked at was made in the United States – at least nothing in its entirety. Maybe parts…maybe parts of parts…
But by and large, the most popular items bought in this (the new American marketplace, three in every town!) are made in Asia: Japan, Hong Kong, mainland China, Korea, the Philippines, India.
In my early youth (in the 1970s), the imprint “made in China” was a standard joke (implying poor quality), or a comment on anti-Americanism (“buy American!”). In time, the bias (as it came to be seen) was lifted, in no small part due to the increasing quality, and happily lower price of the goods.
Then, it became irrelevant, standard, even desired. “Made in Japan, made in Korea – where the best new ‘things you never knew you needed and soon won’t be able to live withouts’ are made!”
An old pattern emerges: what we first reject (or consider an anathema), we then grudgingly accept, and then, if it serves our needs, we adopt it totally. And soon, we cannot live without it.
And then it owns us.
None of this matters, of course, except for religious principle. No, our religion is not Judaism, nor is it Christianity. It’s Capitalism. And our penance is credit card debt.
Our communion used to be based on something tangible – the gold standard. Now it’s treasury bills. He who owns the most T-bills, owns the country, body and soul. And who would that be?
China! At least, it’s well on its way.
So why does it matter that Best Buy and Circuit City, the car dealers, bike manufacturers, clothing stores, video game sellers – why does it matter that everything we buy is made somewhere else? (And for less than we would do it for)?
Why does it matter that almost nothing of high-market value is made in this country?
Why does it matter that all our new little gadgets, (multiplying like little bunnies with no natural predators), are outdated in 6 months, and must be re-purchased, at the same cost?
Because it means we’re ceding our capitalist souls to those who will manage them more efficiently, who will work harder at the sacrifice (in the production of goods), in order bring us the fat of the land…we think, we believe...all at the lowest price.
And we’re rotten with it. Six-year-olds with cell phones. Teenagers (and younger) with two to four-hundred dollar glorified transistor radios, dangling from their hip pockets, or around their necks, taunting the Artful Dodgers in the crowd (or in all of us – just to teach ‘em a lesson about thrift and excess…)
When exactly, did 200 dollars become something you could risk leaving on the bus seat, or park bench? My goodness, how quickly the culture has changed.
I see the consumers willingly, happily throw themselves at each three and four-hundred dollar purchase, as though money weren’t work, and work wasn’t real.
Historians note that Romans were slowly poisoned by the lead in their wonderful aqueducts. You’ll say I’m exaggerating, but I’m wondering if the slight titillation I feel every time I see the shelves of the temples lined with the new, upgraded, faster, smaller, shinier, expanded-memory, windows-ready, video-enabled, streaming audio-video accessories, isn’t a kind of intoxication – of poisoning, too?
But there it is. I do feel that titillation.
A 4 gigabyte flash-memory drive? You don’t say? A personal computer that can fit in two hands? Really? With it’s own docking station! Fantastic!
Oh well…nothing for it, I guess. Except maybe, I’d better buy some stock...in China. |
