3rd
Change.
Outside of a small clothing boutique in Williamsburg, Brooklyn a chalkboard sign has the words “These Times They Are a Changin” scrawled in large blue cursive loops. Next door at the bodega, neighborhood locals in ball caps and hoodies sit on the stoop chain smoking cigarettes, talking about the events in the news and calling out smack to passerby’s who recently moved into the neighborhood with shiny new shoes and shiny new cars.
Unstable economy. War. Global warming. Political unrest. Foreclosures. Job loss. High prices. Credit crisis. Recession. Depression. Socialism or not? These are the headlines we wake up to everyday. No wonder Americans are looking for ways to reestablish a feeling of control over their world. They are anxious. They are restless. And they’re mad as hell that this country has put them in this situation in the first place.
Last week the UN Council released a report that was picked up largely by news agencies outside of the U.S. that the growing wealth gap, racial divide and urban growth rates here in the U.S. have essentially created “a social time bomb” waiting to go off.
Who can you trust?
For some generations who experienced the dot.com bust, Enron, 9/11 and now the Wall Street bailouts in his or her short lifetime, it seems like barely anyone. More and more people are finding subversive ways to take care of themselves because right now, it seems like no one else will. When anger goes unexpressed it can manifest itself through physical manifestations – most people react with a flight or fight reaction. In worse case scenarios, history has shown us that anger becomes a social force that can move a society to destroy its ability to interact on an everyday level.
Other indications point toward a pressure cooker that increasingly either needs to find ways to release steam or risk the potential of exploding:
- While little attention has come from the national news, there have been a number of local news reports pointing to the efforts being taken to secure increased police controls and riot guards on November 4th with the expectation of civil unrest in major metropolitan areas around the country.
- In states such as Ohio, Indiana and Florida, it’s reported that gun sales have gone up as much as 10-15% in the months before the election. Some argue this is simply a matter of precaution against a largely Democratic anti-gun cabinet. Still others believe that with uncertain future and an economic crisis that crime will go up and it may be leading people to buy guns for personal safety.
- In response to the growing food crisis, Chef Dan Barber was quoted in Grist Magazine as saying:
“…according to some reports, there are now over 12 percent of the U.S. population going hungry, and globally over 2 billion people live on less than $2 a day. When food costs go up 5 or 10 percent for those populations, it is a crisis. And anyone who thinks we can avoid civic unrest under such circumstances is simply not paying attention.”
In a New York Times editorial in response to the economic and credit crisis, Margaret Atwood writes
“As for what will happen to us next, I have no safe answers. If fair regulations are established and credibility is restored, people will stop walking around in a daze, roll up their sleeves and start picking up the pieces. Things unconnected with money will be valued more — friends, family, a walk in the woods. “I” will be spoken less, “we” will return, as people recognize that there is such a thing as the common good.
On the other hand, if fair regulations are not established and rebuilding seems impossible, we could have social unrest on a scale we haven’t seen for years.”
I’m no fatalist. Nor fearmonger. But I do believe that the next few months will bring about some very public outcry for change and if ignored, as Atwood points out, we may very well be heading into a new generation of unrest.
Yes, times are changing indeed!
