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> Article Comments (1)
> Sep
> 7
> 2010
> The Collapse of Basic Assumptions and Conventional Wisdom
> Author: Gary Hart
> It is very much an attribute of human nature to become angry when
> what we have believed to be true does not turn out to be true
> forever. For example: the inevitability of progress; an ever
> expanding economic pie; opportunity for all; equality of
> opportunity; having it all; God rewarding the righteous materially;
> market self-correction; our military superiority; our children doing
> better than we did; a house for everyone; and so on.
> Virtually all of these accepted truths have, in a relatively short
> time, turned out not to be true after all. Someone must be to
> blame. It has to be those “politicians.” Or maybe those
> corporations. Or maybe the misleading media. Or maybe a gang of
> behind-the-scene puppet masters led by Henry Kissinger. It has to
> be someone else. It couldn’t be each of us.
> There is nothing wrong with high ambitions, expectations, and
> dreams. Americans lead the world in all of these, and for much of
> our history with good reason. But almost nothing in this world is
> guaranteed, including our superiority and inevitable success.
> Nations and empires rise and fall. Leaders come and go. Sometimes
> we’re up, and sometimes we are down. History is a sobering
> teacher. About the only thing that is inevitable is human folly.
> Are our dreams permanently shattered? Are we in a sharp decline?
> Is our hour over? No, I don’t think so. A certain kind of way of
> life may be coming to an end, one marked by excessive consumption,
> waste, and inefficiency. And if you have defined your life or your
> nation’s life by those standards, it does look gloomy. But what
> really is wrong with smaller cars and more efficient homes and
> deferred gratification and saving for a rainy day?
> This approach toward what might be called a new realism doesn’t
> assume high unemployment forever, homelessness and hopelessness, or
> leaving a third of our fellow Americans behind. It does assume more
> honest and affordable expectations, investing in the future–even
> beyond our own lives, and corralling the excessive ambitions of some
> of our neo-whatevers.
> Most of all, it assumes a collective national soul-searching about
> what really is important in life and what really are the eternal
> truths.
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