So, I was thinking about humanity. I was thinking about Haiti. I was thinking about looters being shot after being saved from the rubble. I was thinking about fresh water. I was thinking about scrabbling around for stuff when the big rain comes. When the big shakedown comes. When they breach the great Fairfax divide and claim what they think is theirs.
I was thinking about John with his pump action, his house on the Beverly hill and how he underestimates the will of the people. We learned to live with nature, we never tamed it, we never will. We must never fear God’s big rain, but always fear the will of the people. John said that ‘cream always rises’. But when the anarchists come with another set of rules, a different cream will find it’s way to the surface.
(I remember at Monkton Wyld School waking up at midnight and skimming the thickest cream off of the milk from the churns into aluminum pans and onto cold apple crumble. The only time we could get at the cream was at the dead of night for midnight feasts. At a different boarding school I remember bad boy Mark Machin waking me at 3 in the morning with a dead pheasant he had poached. He said, “Cook it.”)
With rampant inflation just around the corner I wonder what can save the banking system? Still tinkering rather than overhauling, clinging to what they know like so many old school soviet politbureau. The toxic assets are still on the banks books. What could have, would have happened if these banks were allowed to fail? Some people think-the end of the world.
Did the world end when the Romans lost control? When tulip bulbs lost their value?
Money is an abstract notion. It only has value if and when we decide it has value. It can be manipulated, reinvented, withdrawn…
The banks should have failed. It is the way of capitalism and by steering away from the inevitable, by altering the true course we merely delay the eventual dashing of the good ship Capitalism on the rocks of time.
This ship will still sink and the world will not end. Their world will end. The world of Bernake and Geitner.
Revolutionary change is hard for some, exciting for others. It is essential for our evolution.
Cautionary tale number 1:
Two years ago I bought a painting at auction for $50. When it was first sold at a smart New York gallery in the 1970’s it sold for $50,000. During the 80’s the gallery owner died. The market and cache around her artists and their work crashed. Their credibility failed. With nobody to support the abstract notion of what this art was worth, no longer championed by the powerful gallerist, the stable of artists drifted back into oblivion.
Cautionary tale number 2:
In 1593 Carolus Clusius, a Dutch botanist planted the first tulips in Holland for medicinal purposes. Clusius planted a small garden of tulip bulbs and once they bloomed his neighbors begged him to sell them. Carolus refused. This, understandably, created a huge demand.
So, one night, his garden was broken into and the bulbs were stolen. The thieves created the Dutch Tulip Trade. Tulip bulbs became a commodity and determined the wealth of the nation.
Tulip bulbs became so valuable that they were not planted for fear of being stolen and the entire economy of Holland was based upon their value.
Then, quiet suddenly, the tulip trading business crashed due to bad bulb speculation and an inability of growers to produce enough bulbs to meet demand thus ruining many, many businessmen.
Tulips lost their value and people began to plant them again.
The world did not end.
Duncan Roy's Blog 
Thanks for the reminder on the tulip futures story, and for using a historical perspective in general. In order to see today and to be here now, we still need to learn lessons from what happened before. After yesterday’s post I remembered the term for the secondary trauma experienced by caregivers and people who get burnout from being asked to donate too often – COMPASSION FATIGUE!
(I posted on compassion, Dickens, and bad movies lately.)
Too many people have forgotten about Tulipmania. It is the right analogy for these times. Thank you for all the inspirational words and writings. I first saw you on VH1 but after reading your interviews about your experience on the show, I am certain there is more to you (and you peers) than we ever saw on tv.
Duncan, do you teach? I thought I recalled a mention of that before. If not, you should. I think you would have the knack for keeping your students interested and excited.
I concur!
holy shit! there is nothing sexier than a man who thinks.
I was also thinking about Haiti as well, the thought of being buried alive is really hard to imagine, and I don’t want to imagine it. But, I think of the people that are buried alive and my heart aches. On the other hand, I was really moved by the generous donations that people of the world contributed, and I was filled with hope, that there are a lot of good people living on this world that didn’t lose their will to do good.
Duncan the way you wrote about the “Banks” is really interesting. You are brilliant man. It motivates me to study up, and to acquire knowledge, and look at things in different perspective.
I think about money like that on occasion. It strikes me as so odd that so many things have been built upon this abstract value we’ve set for, essentially, pieces of paper. Not to mention how some people love it, want it, horde it, & what they’ll do to not only get it, but keep it or use it.
Hearing about looters being shot in Haiti reminded me of Katrina. There was a controversy about the media portraying white-skinned people as “foraging” and dark-skinned people as “looting.” I was wondering how much of the “looting” in Haiti was just people looking for food or water or clothes in the ruins. I think of parents trying to find something for their children to eat. I think of children without relatives trying to find something for themselves.
Meanwhile, the amount of waste in the U.S. astonishes and disgusts me.
I couldn’t agree more. It may sound crazy to some folks but I was looking forward to a change let the banks crash, let the car companies find their own way. Whatever happened to necessity is the mother of invention? Does GE need to be investing in what amounts to pushing money around or do they need to invest in the science and people that can create clean energy? Its too unnatural and inorganic.