I recently read of a man who became exceedingly rich and spent a fortune on the yacht of his wet dreams, initially somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 million dollars. Once at sea, however, he became very cognizant of piracy--they operate off the coast of Florida as well as Somali, after all--so he had his ride retrofitted with many millions more in offensive and defensive technologies. At first the additional gear allayed some of these fears, but even as he tried to party away his anxieties he still found himself keeping a wary eye on the horizon. This led to several more upgrades, all of which he never failed to boast, and to this day he awaits the inevitable attack on his "stuff." Well, I'm right there with you my brother! With the economy down there has been a recent uptick in burglaries in my neighborhood, so I have dug deep into my resources and got myself a shelter dog--collie/St Bernard/indiscriminate other--and I upgrade him every week with a fresh bag of puppy chow. We are prepared to pry away the cold, dead fingers of any fool who comes for my flatscreen!
Greed is one of the more poisonous manifestations of fear. From what I read in the paper today I'm guessing the U.S. is one of the most fearful countries on the planet. At present we are dead last among developed democracies in many key areas of quality of life, and I attribute this to fear and greed. We have the highest incidences of mental illness, of drug use, of infant mortality, of obesity, of teenage pregnancy, of homicide, of imprisonment. We are near bottom in upward social mobility, in national income spent on foreign aid, on well-being of children, on math and literacy of 15-year-olds. Hell, we're even dead last in life expectancy--dead last in death! Yeah, I read the paper too much. Yeah, I watched that 60 Minutes segment on homelessness this week (especially kids in Florida) and I cried--I'm a friggin' bleeding heart, no doubt about it. But jeez' people, 10% of the country has 90% of the wealth? For God's sake, how much is enough? What touched off this incipient, corrosive, insatiable fear that is taking us all down? "Duck and cover" for my generation? Can you say "shibboleth?"
