About the coming depression

[Confusious]

I've always enjoyed reading about history. I always wondered how people felt when, say Rome fell, or how they felt in England when America won the war?
Did they realize at the time how the whole world would change? I read about the depression and world war 2, asked my grandmother about it, since she lived through it. Not too many questions, just "how did it feel?."

I'm going to be 40 this year, and after decades of watching the repugs ( Yes, since I was 16 years old. I watched the iran-contra on tv one summer, background noise mostly) I got the feeling that this would happen as they tore the new deal protections down. I didn't know when, 5 years ago, now or 5 years from now.

But I guess the moral of the story is I get to ask myself "How does it feel?." and my answer?

Excited and scared shitless.

Excited to see it through the eyes of someone who loves history

Scared shitless for myself and my friends and everyone else.

[Donnachaidh]

1. uhh -- it's not *coming* - it's HERE.

Talk to the folks who have been out of work for MONTHS and see if they agree that it's not here yet.

[Deja Q]

3. Quite. I think employers who fire or lay off employees should just shoot them instead.

Might be deemed more "humane", note the irony...

[sandnsea]

5. They Shoot Horses Don't They

Just came into my head, timely movie for anyone who hasn't seen it.

[Debi]

8. Haunting movie.

"Here they are again, folks! These wonderful, wonderful kids! Still struggling! Still hoping! As the clock of fate ticks away, the dance of destiny continues! The marathon goes on, and on, and on! HOW LONG CAN THEY LAST!"

[Confusious]

4. When the great depression started

People thought it was bad, it got worse.

I'm just hoping it doesn't turn out that way. I can still hope can't I?

[Deja Q]

10. Hope? The audacity is mind-boggling.

:evilgrin:

[Donnachaidh]

15. when the unemployment hits *hope* disappears and reality sets in

Hope doesn't pay bills. Hope doesn't feed your kids. Hope doesn't really amount to much, when you still try to work, and are then under-employed, and therefore cannot get unemployment that you have paid into for YEARS.

Hope is a sandwich board message to the people who are cashing in coin savings to pay bills, while CEOs of banks are sitting in Congress rattling off the billions they've already received from the government. And those same CEO's will probably get more billions before the laid off worker gets help. Oh wait -- the unemployment checks just got fatter, to the tune of $13 a week.

YIPPEE. :sarcasm:

Hope is an empty catchphrase for the people who are suffering, but not QUITE suffering enough to get foodstamps, or help paying their rent. That catchphrase does nothing for the people moving into tent cities, because they have been effectively *disappeared* by job losses and a media more intent on stirring political pots than actually reporting on what is REALLY happening on Main Street USA.

[leftofthedial]

2. "coming"?

You'd better start now taking notes for your history.

[CoffeeCat]

6. I have to agree...

...that this is history. It's not pleasant, but it is history.

I've been saving news clippings and I'm keeping a journal. We're smack dab in the center of a meltdown that will surpass
"The Great Depression". A paradigm shift is happening.

I am scared too. And pissed. But I also welcome the change, because what we had going on was unsustainable hyperconsumerism, and
it made our society selfish, greedy and vacuous.

[Confusious]

7. I was watching a show from the BBC about the great depression

They were they same as us ( selfish, greedy and vacuous ) at the same time. I would like to believe people can improve and learn, but that show but a boot in my view. I still hold out hope, but it dwindles.

[FirstLight]

12. I heard THAT!

I am pissed and excited and scared... glad that I live in a rural area because the cities in the midst of meltdown won't be very pretty...but scared because the seasons here are bitter cold & dangerous..
time for people to get to know their neighbors again and pitch in.

The problem with now vs. the depression...
back then, people weren't so far removed from farming and self sustainabilty.
NOW - who knows how to build a chicken coop, raise food or mend things?

I am in the same age group (39-40) and I am shocked...but glad because the era of unsustainability is OVER!
maybe the Utopian visions of the late 80's are going to come true...people bicycling to work, energy from the sun, food growing in huge "greenbelts" that the people all pitched into....
*sigh* we can surely HOPE - and we can also WORK to make it happen in our own neighborhoods...that is really the only thing we got going for us.

[lunatica]

9. I share your enthusiasm/fear about living historical events

I'm 60 so I have 20 years more experience and I've seen a lot of revolutionary changes in my lifetime. The funny thing is that when you are living it you aren't as objective as you might want to be because the day to day changes are slow.

I now recall things and keep them in context. There are times when historic events were obvious like when JFK was assassinated or MLK Jr. These are turning points where you can talk about the times as being before and after these events because things changes so drastically. Then there was the Vietnam war. Did you know that the nation didn't talk about it for 10 years? It was such a deep wound and it changed so much in our consciousness. When the Vietnam memorial wall was built was when the country could finally begin to heal. Now we have two separate camps regarding that war. We either see the war as something that should teach us not to go invade other countries because no matter how barefoot the civilians are they are formidable resistance fighters who can bring the best equiped military down or the other end of the spectrum which thinks the lessons about Vietnam are about winning no matter what or how long it takes without ever questioning why we keep trying to invade countries that keep kicking our ass. And we're in the middle of a war now that will also see a sea change in our consciousness as it makes us repeat history because we've simply not learned that Empires always lose in the end.

Yet there was a lot that's been exciting and fun. The Beatles took the Western world by storm and changed not only music but hair and fashion and they were after Buddy Holly and Elvis who also changed music in a fundamental way before that. There was Motown all tied up with the mini skirts and long hair and Black is Beautiful, and of course, Hippies who dropped out and got stoned.

In more recent times technology coming into our schools, our businesses, our jobs and our homes is changing us and the world in ways we can barely comprehend, connecting us in ways that we could only read about in science fiction books. The invention of CGI (movie special effects) has revolutionized the way stories can be told. Programs like Photoshop have changed our perception and our manipulative power of reality completely

Then there was the conservative backlash to all the hippies and the anti-war and civil rights and expansion of inclusiveness when Reagan came along wanting to destroy what was a good start in learning our hard lessons regarding Vietnam and the Hostage Situation in Iran. Just when it seemed we were on the verge of learning some humility and joining the world rather than wanting to be its boss he came along and whipped up ultra patriotism and jingoism taking us to the biggest and most dangerous military force in history. Right now we're reeling from his policies taken to their most extreme by his staff. The neocons also changed everything and that's what we're neck deep in right now.

[tama]

11. I would rather not

live "interesting times" of the Chinese curse, but ordinary human life with ordinary joys and sorrows. Interesting times steals much away from that experience, though it certainly provides also abundance of other kinds of experience. But we live the lives we are thrown into, and I'm not complaining. Or at least, complaining only modestly so that it's not away from the feeling of gratitude for being and experiencing.

Yes, the pace of change has been incredibly fast and Mr. Timex still keeps pushing the throttle. The problem with this pace and haste is that our primitive brains, not very different from chimpanzee brains, cannot keep up with the pace of change, we became lost and alianated. Like Kronos the Greek God, we eat our children through our system of debt and destruction, in a wierd reflection of the original myth which was about the Golden Age.

[dixiegrrrrl]

13. I have my great aunt's diary of the '30's.

My grandmother's sister.
Irish.
NOT lace curtain Irish.
whining bitching moaning pessimistic chronically complaining Irish.
Married to drinkers, of course.
But the entries are mercifully brief ( really really depressing people, my family) and
have detail. They had land, cows, and borrowed ( with resentment) from one another.
Not a wide focus of the world, of politics, but a day to day focus on how to figure out what to have for supper, no milk if the cow was dry, traded a calf for rent, etc.
they just slogged thru, and seemed to accept the day to day grind as reality.
Had houses to live in, cars, none of the "Grapes of Wrath " stuff, but money was very scarce.
Grandpa would climb the telephone pole and hook up the disconnected electricity, they bootlegged booze, they would "find" things like deer, fish, small boats, and somehow Grandma and her 6 married sisters and her 6 kids ( including my Mom) all got thru it and even came out intact at the end of WW 2.
Worry and fret about tomorrow, was the over arching mood.
Maybe it was the Depression that created that in my family.
It never left, they were always anxious and pessimistic about something all their lives.

Years later all I heard from G'pa, who was crippled from a work accident in the dockyards during WW 2, was " that God **** Roosevelt".
Strange, the very very blue collar working class of his group hated Roosevelt.
Never said why...rather, I was too young to inquire before he died.
The whole family bought the "dirty Japs" bit, and other racist values.

My take away...on the day to day level, you slog thru. You lean on family, of whatever type, on neighbors if they are the leaning on type, you care for yourself and try to help others. Events happen, you react locally to survive, some people are far seeing, some are not.
Being far seeing and perceptive helps if you can react in a proactive way, but then the BIG hits happen, it gets down to local behavior.


Sorry...this was kinda sideways to your post, but it came tumbling out somehow.

[truedelphi]

14. I found your homespun tale very interesting.

Enjoyed the bit about Granpa climbing the utility pole.

[Baikonour]

16. I just can't wait to be in a PBS documentary 60 years from now..

as an old man, recounting stories about the 2008/09 great depression.

[nolabels]

17. Well if continues into,......say 2016 or so these might just look like.....

the good ole days. Or maybe it might even start to get even worse at that time :shrug: