Angst essen Seele auf. Fear eats the soul. I have this photo on my dresser where I see it every day. It has served as a reminder to me of something intrinsically basic about humanity. Fear eats the soul. It is fear that creates the atmosphere for the worst of human behavior. I'm talking about the kind of fear that is based upon a lack of understanding or knowledge, of ideation about bad outcomes based upon no hard evidence. Fear of the unknown.
The photo is of the safety screen at the State Opera in Vienna (ca. 2006-2007 season). When I first saw it in person, I stared at it in a moment of recognition of a core truth. It is such a profoundly simple statement. The meaning behind the words resonated somewhere very deep in my brain.
Fear eats the soul.
When we are fearful, we do things that are contrary to our well-being and the well-being of others. We act irrationally.
We fear, thus we lash out at others whether or not they have any relationship to our fear because we don't really know what to do. We allow the suspension of civil liberties that are the bedrock of our culture because maybe we really can't trust one another. We create elaborate safeguards to ensure that we don't have to confront flag-draped coffins. We imprison people overseas without charging them with crimes because then we can pretend it doesn't really affect us or our judicial system. We condone torturing people and imagine that somehow they deserve it or it is somehow serving a common good, while engaging in public debate about the relative merits of waterboarding. Good versus bad torture. Irrational.
I bring this up now because we are fearful about our economy and are about to act irrationally by bailing out financial institutions without any clear idea about whether the expenditure of $700 billion will even make a difference. Or whether it is truly going to help the people (you and I) whose credit card is being used. Make no mistake about it, we don't have a spare $700 billion lying around. We have a war or two already going onto the devolving-account USA Card.
The more pertinent question might be to ask just where that $700 billion went to (or whatever the number actually might be). It didn't evaporate. Money, like energy, exchanges. It travels from one place to another. It's relative value may change, but it is still there. How about the $6 billion in bonuses paid to Lehman Brothers executives last year before filing for bankruptcy. Or the other $56 billion paid to Wall Street executives as bonuses last year. Bonuses. Beyond already outrageous base pay. Nothing in the 'bailout' addresses the most basic questions, starting with 'where did the money go?'
An irrational market engenders irrational pay. That money came from somewhere, and a significant part of that somewhere is an inflated housing market. Wall Street traded mortgages for which everyone who touched them knew there was never any hope of payment. In medicine that would be called malpractice and we would seek compensation from the medical personnel and institutions involved. Of course, in this case we have the complicity of our leadership, the very people crafting the bailout. We are reaping the continuing legacy of Reagan-era 'hands off the market' deregulation policy.
Instead of doing something meaningful, our leaders are choosing to slam our collective credit card. It's a whole lot easier and does indeed look like one is doing something. Lots of impressive sounds coming from the Hill. Ultimately, it looks a lot like being offered financing for a lovely home when you and everyone else knows you can't afford it.
Fear of economic collapse. Who expects rational answers?
Fear eats the soul. It apparently also severely impacts brain function.
