February 17, 2010, An extremely inconvenient truth
Just as Jon Stewart's "Daily Show" is pretty much the only reliable news source on American broadcast television, so it seems, it only has one reliable counterpart in the American print media, and "America's Finest News Source" tells it like it is again, with this article, in which Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke finally lets us in on the dirty little secret of our culture: money is just a product of collective psychosis-- an illusion.
The fact is, gold bugs... try eating your gold when you get really hungry. It's not just money (and precious metals) we're deluded about-- much of our petroleum based existence is equally the product of delusion (or at least, continued belief in its permanence is, anyway)-- from the genetically modified processed foods you eat, to the fuel used to speed in your SUV (and heat your McMansion), to the electricity you are using to read these words, to the synthetic fibers your clothes and your Ikea furniture is made of... you're going to have to live without all of it when, inevitably, oil becomes unobtainable (at least, in exchange for the illusion of American currency). And, without oil, even the threat of military action, currently the basis for how we get oil on credit now, will cease to be a credible threat.
And, while the macro- will, alas, take care of itself, so, it seems, will the micro-: These events are reported from that esteemed institution around a block from TD's workplace:
At the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday morning's opening bell echoed across a silent floor as the few traders who arrived for work out of habit looked up blankly at the meaningless scrolling numbers on the flashing screens above. "I've spent 25 years in this room yelling 'Buy, buy! Sell, sell!' and for what?" longtime trader Michael Palermo said."All I've done is move arbitrary designations of wealth from one column to another, wasting my life chasing this unattainable hallucination of wealth."
"What a cruel cosmic joke," he added. "I'm going home to hug my daughter."
The Emperor really has no clothes: we have sold ourselves into slavery for an illusion. Grow some vegetables, folks. Hug your kids. Knit a sweater. Read a book. Take a walk. Smell the flowers, feel the breeze in your hair... smile. No one can take those things away from you. Unless you want them to... because you buy into the illusion. This has been... "An extremely inconvenient truth."