This depression, of proportions as great if not greater than that of the 1930s, still engulfs us. None of our governments appear to have any idea of how to end it. How could they? The essence of rational leadership is control justified by expertise. To admit failure is to admit loss of control. Officially, therefore, we haven’t had a depression since the 1930s. And since most experts — the economists, for example — are part of the system, instead of being commentators in any real, independent sense , they contribute to the denial of reality. In other words, there is a constant need in our civilization to prefer illusions over reality, a need to deny our perceptions.
[...] After the economic crisis of the 1930s, we created a multitude of control valves and safety nets in order to avoid any future general collapse — strict banking regulations, for example, social security programs and in some places national health care systems. These valves and nets have been remarkably successful, in spite of the strains and the mismanagement of the last two decades. However, because the rational system prevents anyone who accepts legal responsibility from taking enough distance to get a general view, many of our governments, desperate and misguided, have begun dismantling those valves and nets as a theoretical solution to the crisis.
Worse still, tinkering with these instruments has become a substitute for addressing the problem itself. Thus financial deregulation is used to stimulate growth through paper speculation. When this produces inflation, controls are applied to the real economy, producing unemployment. When this job problem becomes so bad that it must be attacked, the result is the lowering of employment standards. When this unstable job creation leads to new inflation, the result is high interest rates. And on around again, guided by the professional economists, who are in effect pursuing, step by step, an internal argument without any reference to historic reality. For example, in a single decade the idea of using public debt as an economic tool has moved from the heroic to the villainous. In the same period private debt went in the opposite direction, from the villainous to the heroic. This was possible only because economists kept their noses as close to each specific argument as possible and thus avoided invoking any serious comparisons and any reference to the real lessons of the preceding period.
In general terms all this means that management methods are being mistaken for solutions and … [a]s a result we are perpetually either on the edge of a recession (never in it, let alone in a depression, whatever the indicators say) or we are artificially flush and then manage to convince ourselves that we are flying high.
[...]
Our societies turn upon democratic principles, yet the quasi totality of our leading citizens refuse to take part in that process and, instead, leave the exercise of political power to those for whom they have contempt. Our business leaders hector us in the name of capitalism, when most them are no more than corporate employees, isolated from personal risk. [...] Never has there been such a sea of available information, and yet all organizations — public and private — work on the principle that information is secret unless specifically declared not to be. There is a conviction that governments have never been so strong and at the same time a sense that they are virtually powerless to effect change unless some superhuman effort is made. Or … after a century of carefully building both self-respect among employees and job stability for them, our first reaction when faced by a depression is to move out of manufacturing and into service industries.
— John Ralston Saul, Voltaire’s Bastards (1992), pp 10-2.
Peep!
~
Cheep!
I have returned. I am brooding.
Wouldn’t that be “flocking?”
I’m broody.
I’m back from bizness trip to Portland.
Anyone want to know what SSSS on your boarding pass means?
~
I know it quite well.
Super-super-super-secure?
Super secret security screening.
Mandos, did you ever have to go through the ordeal (public, it is! fine entertainment for the entire security line crowd), then get to the next airport, have to change terminals (and go out through security²), and then enjoy SSSS again?
²I’m looking at you, Boston-Logan. Whose idea was it to return to Columbus, Ohio from Oregon via Boston, anyways?
~
P.S. I made that definition of SSSS up.
Also. Things I hate about airports:
1) Airports where you sometimes have to go out through security to make a connection. E.g. Phoenix PHX, Logan BOS.
2) Airports that are so congested that the success of landing or pulling away from the gate is minor, when compared to the task of getting off the ground or off the plane. E.g. Charlotte, Dallas DFW, Logan BOS, Charlotte CLT.
3) Airports that don’t offer free internet access. Instead, they let some corporate toll taker
provide a service toprey on the hapless victims of our air transportation collapse. E.g. Dallas, DFW, Logan BOS.By my reckoning, that makes Logan International Airport pretty damn sucky.
~
Add SFO to the crappy no free WiFi.
Add PHX to the happy and free WiFi.
It happened to me once because I bought my ticket without my middle name. There’s a handful of [[Námo]] [[Mandoses]] in the world, and at least one of them is on the watch list. I suspect it’s the thinktanker in a foreign country. Now I use [[Námo]] [[Vala]] [[Mandos]] and I never get SSSS.
However, I went with my immediate family to Pakistan and India at the end of ’06, and I brought them down from Canada to the USA for a cheaper ticket out of a certain airport that uses AT-AT walkers to get people between terminals. I didn’t get SSSS, but my entire family did. So several glass booths ended up getting occupied…
But security aside, by far the worst airport I’ve been to is Frankfurt. I heard someone say, it combines Italian efficiency with German hospitality. Heating optional. In winter.
Dulles. At least they have 5 guys. And Pot Belly.
Dulles has a few places to get edible food, but it’s an anachronism. The internal subway can’t be finished soon enough. The main terminal is beautiful, but there needs to be more than one security-point-of-entry, the original Eero Saarinen concept did not work in the age of commodity aviation. Low throughput, high latency!
By the way, I’m seriously considering an SFO trip in the next few weeks. It’s like a giant funnel for people like me, what with teh Goog being there and all. May as well see what the fuss is all about. Once plans are actually off the drawing board and the scheduling actually works out, I will be stealing a stale thread for a mini-Yelp session. Mwahah.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned the Boschian nightmare that is Chicago O’Hare. I’d say that it resembles one of the outer circles of hell, but I imagine hell has warmer coffee.
I actually don’t mind O’Hare. It lost my luggage a couple of times, but it won me a $1K voucher. That was actually Air Canada’s fault (massive overbook to Edmonton of all plaices), but it happened at ORD. And they have a mysteriously cheap but tasty smoked salmpn sandwich, and cheesecake everywhere you look.
I never have thought of ORD as a cheesecake fantasy. Are we talking about the food kind, or the soft pr0n kind?
Food kind. They have those Eli’s Cheesecake stands in B and C concourse. Although since there are more (cheap) direct flights between Barad-dûr and Valinor, I haven’t been through ORD in a year. I used to pass through it about 6-8 times a year. In fact I am going to the Blessed Realm direct flight tomorrow morning!
Sweet United terminal- I remember when it was but new.
Yes, and at the “round” end of B or C (forget which, think C) I used to buy $3.50 smoked salmon+creamcheese toasted bagel sandwiches for lunch. Good helping of salmon too. Bet it’s still there. I found out about this during a 2h layover when wandering around trying to decide what would be tastiest, and then a random traveller noticed my indecision (dissatisfaction) and told me about this little secret of the best cheap lunch in the terminal.
Direct flights have destroyed my airport conaisseurship. Boo hoo. I used to love riding the internal monorail at DTW (Northwest Terminal). I don’t miss being made 10 minutes late for my Master’s thesis defense because of LGA, though. (And not being given a hotel voucher for the unwanted overnite stay.)
DTW is very nice, but National is my current favorite because it has a nouveau train station feel.
Although I think it is odd that the Citrus Fashion Association hasn’t noticed our new post.
National has a nice feel, is very convenient, but it does lack for places to eat. They have the California Wrap, I think, which is nice, and Panda Express which is everyone’s favorite “Chinese” food place, and a Cosí before security whereat to sit down. But that’s it as far as lunch goes. The sushi is overpriced and I don’t bother with TGIF.
I always wonder what makes the Citrus Fashion Association tick. So unpredictable.
In a bout of the annoying kind of irony, Canadian customs decided to select me for a smuggling search. The story is kind of hilarious but long. It involves a piece of (completely useless, idiotic) software called I-C-What-U-C which they use in the childporn/hatelit laptop snoopery. It’s Windows software, my laptop runs Linux. Hilarity ensues.
I never get searched by Merkin customs, only Canadian customs, maybe because Merkin customs has better things to do. Obviously, they find nothing, but they reveal a million stupid security holes in their procedures.