The pendulum swings relentlessly.
We have seen over the course of history when, coming out of the Slough of Despond, someone manages to rise up and push for what’s right. At least, as far as we can tell. So they build up some momentum, and things look good for awhile. In the past it took a few generations, but these days it’s much quicker. Eventually, greed gets a foothold and the whole thing goes downhill until we are back at the Slough of Despond. There are mega-cycles and mini-cycles, too, but trends aren’t that hard to spot when you find some place to stand outside of the mess.
Right now, the West in general, and America in particular, are way out on the swing toward greed. That is, almost everything we expect to see enforced in laws is not, unless it pays. The few things vigorously enforced are those which benefit the greedy. Less and less of the pretense is put up, as the facade is coming off. So don’t expect anything resembling common justice unless you get it yourself. That’s really sad.
A really good example of this is highlighted in the film, Food, Inc. Just a tiny handful of mega-corporations own all food production in the US, and they own all the enforcement of food regulation, too. The deck is stacked against actual good nutrition. For example, it is almost impossible to buy anything with corn or soy which isn’t GMO. And it’s almost impossible to buy anything at all which doesn’t include corn or soy.
The only light in the darkness of this picture is the rising organic food industry. Yes, it’s an industry. And it’s being bought up by the same handful of big food makers. But you can, if you work hard at it, find a few who haven’t sold their souls. That is, the product which began as a tiny little operation of true believers may still be the same product. It usually costs more.
Which simply points out the greed of the victims. Were it not for the fierce demand food be fast, convenient and cheap, those major conglomerates would have never made it that far. Of course, the biggest problem in this formula is the demand for cheap. We aren’t willing to pay what things naturally cost, so someone else obligingly leaps on that and builds a business. It grows, and there is the natural demand for uniformity, which makes food a “product” as opposed to something natural. Once those vendors get big enough, they realize the only way to stay on top is to control everything in the business. That means keeping you from ever considering how messed up the whole situation is.
Frankly, the sin is ours, but now it’s out of our hands. The movie tries to portray the notion you can demand a change and get it, but don’t count on that. You can scarcely find that a copy of that movie in the first place. Would you have heard of it any place else? Sure, but only if you look for that sort of thing in the first place.
At any rate, the pendulum swings. Very soon, the whole system will collapse and many of us will likely face starvation, because we have entirely far too much invested in the current system. There are a few limited opportunities to fix this mess before it collapses, but I would be totally amazed if we even notice them, much less availed ourselves of them as a nation. No, we’ll let the pendulum swing back the other way before we catch on, and then we’ll slowly adjust and maybe, just maybe, push aside the greed and do what’s right. For awhile.
