THE WINTER OF MY DISCONTENT

Every day, in every media we are showing the strain. It is a worldwide phenomenon where dissidents the world over express their outrage at loss of freedom or the state of the economy---and the world, for that matter.

Here in the U.S.A. the demonstrations of the “Occupy Wall Street” have infected the whole country with growing demonstrations in major cities. I even read of one case in Memphis, Tennessee where “Occupy Memphis” proponents found some common ground with the Tea Party (can you believe it?), at least in their discontent with the state of the economy and the government. Adversity doth create strange bedfellows on occasions…

A few nights ago, I stayed up long enough---rare for me---to watch on P.B.S. the Charlie Rose Show where Charlie always has interesting and challenging guests. One of these guests the night I watched was Lawrence Lissig, a Harvard Professor who has just published a new book, “Republic Lost: How Congress Corrupts Politics and How to Fix it.” Charlie was questioning in his usual trenchant way about the book, and I became intrigued.

The essence of Lissig’s theme was the dreadful state of decay and total governmental paralysis in Congress, the major cause of which, according to Lissig, is the corrupting power of money, or “funders”, as he referred to them, on Congress, which has become totally compromised. The Super-Pacs and Lobbyists use their greedy hands to peddle their influences and extend their hold on Congressional personnel, who have a good thing going and don’t want to kill the golden goose. I was so impressed by his discussion that I ordered the book on amazon.com and am looking forward to reading it.

The idea isn’t original with Lissig; many of us have felt this way for a long time: that the power of the elite and moneyed .001 is pervading and abusing our government. How many times have you received an email, deploring the privileged benefits Congress has bestow upon itself and calling for reform, which is highly unlikely with the proverbial foxes guarding the henhouse, unless a political tsunami sweeps away the existing Congress? And it’s not simply Congress. The Executive branch is not above benefiting with political favors those who support them. Plus, we have a Supreme Court that I think is now tilted to support the status quo and resist change. It is not a charming portrait of government.

I’m usually a glass-half-full kind of guy, but I must say I have never been more worried about our country---and the world---than now. We have lived through World Wars, a Cold War and regional wars in our lifetime, but I have never had such a feeling of impending disaster, which, I suspect, will be an economic one and could have all of us at each other’s throats in a chaotic world. This feeling of malaise keeps growing stronger; I feel like I’m living near the edge of a precipice.

This is a new feeling for me, and I hope I’m dead wrong. I hope we can come to our senses and begin to right some wrongs. We need bipartisan cooperation to stimulate the economy; we need fiscal regulation to control the greedy impulses of a few; we need to push for democracy in the world and not by military might; we need to work internationally together to solve fiscal, climatic and political problems. I am fed up with any reforms being put off until the 2012 election---and then I wonder what and if the changes will be.

I don’t enjoy the winter of my discontent.