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Wednesday Update

What we want to continue doing in some of these Wednesday Updates is begin to look at major events in the news in their larger historical context.... And maybe even how some things will be viewed in 50 years, 100 years or even 500 or 1000 years...

Subject: America’s problems today are primarily "spiritual"

(Wed., February 11 , 2009)

(approx. 3545 words, 7 pp.)

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Our "problems" in America today are often spiritual as much as moral or even economic... Today, there is pretty much complete agreement that things are not going too well in America, economically speaking, and there is outright disagreement on "moral" issues in the so-called "culture war," and all agree on that as well. The point here in this writing is not who’s right and who’s wrong, and so forth, but rather to understand the moral and spiritual components of our problems economically, socially, culturally, politically, and so forth.  Today, we open the ultimate can of philosophical worms... the spiritual reality behind everything, and underpinning everything...

However, first... What is a moral problem?

What is a moral problem? The so-called "culture war" is a "moral" problem. Apart from whether you think, say, homosexual marriage is a good thing or a bad thing, it is a "moral issue," traditionally defined. One side thinks homosexual marriage is not morally bad or doesn’t care whether it is or isn’t, and the other side thinks it is morally bad and not "good" for society. Though there are different views here, the point is these are different views on "morality" and even whether there is a true moral good and what it is. Killing stealing, lying, and any sex outside of heterosexual marriage (homosexual or otherwise) are generally considered in the West, historically, to be "immoral," rightly or wrongly. And going so far as to call something that is considered to be immoral "morally good" is traditionally called "morally depravity," again rightly or wrongly.

What’s the point here?

What’s the point here? The point is whether you think homosexual marriage is good or bad, moral or immoral, one is making truth claims, intellectually speaking, about the goodness or badness of a particular activity or the institution of marriage, or whatever the particular moral issue under discussion might be, and regardless of what one’s judgments or assertions on a subject might be, pro or con. In essence, America in the so-called culture war is having moral disagreements about various subjects and issues. Simple enough.

But America today has, all agree, has massive economic problems as well as so-called culture ones. The automobile sector is failing, and the financial sector is failing, and on and on. The current general economic mess is not really moral, as such, except in cases of actual stealing or outright corruption, etc. But the fact is, at bottom, economic problems are often not simply economic nor moral, they are often primarily spiritual, and problems of good, desirable, and healthy human interaction, which at bottom generally are spiritual problems...

What is a spiritual problem? It tends to be human interaction problems. The credit crisis in the financial sector, the failing auto industry, and the general dysfunctionality of Washington DC over the last 20 years or more are all mostly spiritual problems, as are virtually all human interaction problems. Think about it... what is wrong with the auto industry? "Normally," what is wrong with any industry is technological. But our problems in the auto industry are not specifically technological. "We," as Americans and as an advanced 21st century country, know how to build cars, and good cars, no problem. 100 years ago you simply could not find a very good car anywhere! We simply did not have the know-how and technology to build one. 100 years ago they did not have a human interaction problem; they had a technology problem.

Today, we do not really have a technology problem but a human interaction problem and wisdom problem. Management in the auto industry is not able to arrange the human organizational structure of the car companies to make cars at a cost competitive price, and labor is not willing to negotiate in good faith without making outrageous demands for wages and benefits. The problem in the failing auto industry is a series of human interaction problems, clearly. These problems are not specifically moral, you will note, (no one is, say, stealing outright), and this means these economic problems of the auto companies are just a manifestation or symptom of human interaction dysfunctionality problems.

What is going on here for the auto companies? Overpaid, incompetent management and unions completely out-of-control, self-destructively so for the company and the country. These are totally human resource dysfunctionality problems, in essence, clear spiritual and wisdom problems. But it is worse than that... When the auto executives and the UAW leaders went to Washington last year in late 2008, neither the executives nor labor went in good faith, yet another spiritual problem!

The auto executives had no plans to re-structure things in a more efficient manner, and labor had no plan to move off the dime on wages and benefits at all. Both groups just wanted massive amounts of money to continue in their dysfunctionality. Neither labor nor management was in good faith, which is overtly a spiritual thing and not a specific moral deed one does or does not do. Congress clearly should make conditions for money somewhat stringent for them, perhaps as tough as a bankruptcy judge would do, but with a Congressional plan they get to avoid bankruptcy, which is not desirable for anybody.

This is not rocket science, please

This is not rocket science, please. For example, last year, Federal Express, a major US firm located in my dear hometown of Memphis, announced that all salaried employees would take a 5 or 10% pay cut, I do not recall which, but not people on an hourly wage. It was on all the local news programs. Why did they do this? They were trying to maintain profitability in a slow economy, and the salaried employees make big bucks, and the company is struggling in a slow economy, and the hourly workers are not unionized and do not make wages out of line with the market. Will this solve their problems or go a long way to doing so? Maybe, I do not know, the point is they did not need a silly mandate from Congress to take this action, and they were not seeking massive bucks, indeed, any bucks from Congress.

You will also notice this is not the currently vogue slap the wrist of the CEO thing. Everybody, took a cut, and this is also in contrast to many failing or struggling companies which continue, incredibly, to hand out raises, no less. You will also note that the decision of Federal Express had nothing to do with the technology of delivering packages, as such. It was a matter of wise, good faith management for the shareholders, and this is as much a spiritual matter as it is an intellectual truth claim matter or moral deed matter, as such. The point? The economic problems of the auto industry are merely the symptoms of the underlying problems which are spiritual. (QED)

And the financial economic credit crisis of 2008?

And the financial economic credit crisis of 2008 was almost entirely a spiritual matter as well when it was not a matter of outright moral corruption. I can tell there are doubters in the audience, so I will have to prove this one as well! Unfortunately journalism tends to be something of a lost art these days, so I will have to do this one, as best I can, by the seat of my pants, as the expression goes, which I can do about as well as anybody I suppose, but it is hardly my preferred mode of operation. This analysis is from general news reports...

Were there bad mortgages that caused the credit market crisis and banks to fail? So, it is widely reported, and so I assume. Did the government pressure banks to make some ill-advised loans to poor people? So, it is widely reported, and so I assume, but clearly a lot more went wrong than this! Fannie and Freddie were widely reported to be in the business of buying up bad loans, and bad loans were only a small percentage of any given bank’s portfolio, so not only a little problem but no problem, if you wanted to dump them?

Further, even a bad mortgage has collateral, namely, the house itself, so you can re-coup 80 to 90% of your loan in a foreclosure even in an inflated market, and maybe all of your loss if you got a down payment in a stable market. So, again no big problem to shake any given bank, maybe even no problem at all, let alone a problem to bring the entire world financial system to ruin. Further, if people cannot afford their note, they can and should sell their house and buy a cheaper one. Or move into a house they can afford, if and when they get foreclosed and/or work out a new deal with the bank, or whatever. Pretty basic stuff here? But none of this should bring down one bank after another and the entire worldwide banking system? Clearly something much larger was going on that we are not hearing about? I think we must assume?

So, What really went wrong in the financial economic credit crisis of 2008? Well, accordingly to Secretary Paulson and our dear ex President W Bush, there were billions, and billions, and billions, and billions, and billions of dollars of bad paper in the financial system worldwide, no less. My goodness. A few poor people and minorities did not make their notes? I don’t think so, but it does not matter because these economic problems are mostly spiritual even if that is the case, and even more so if that is not the case.

Look, "bad paper" means you paid a lot of money for something that is essentially worthless. And financial institutions were apparently buying this worthless paper on a worldwide basis to the tune of close to a trillion dollars. As was widely reported people were making 100s of millions of dollars throughout the 1990s and early 2000s selling complex derivatives, apparently they were so complex they were actually worthless? This reminds me of those days when the entire nation was glued to the television set watching the Enron hearings, which we thought were such a big deal, but in reality it was all small change. Good ole Andy Fastow was creating complex, essentially worthless, derivatives to raise money, and drawing endless complex circles on the blackboard which no one could understand of where money was supposedly going to go and come from, etc. Did Lay and Skilling know this was all a scam? Almost certainly not in my opinion, but they were writing glowing earning reports and hiding problems in complex footnotes to keep the stock price up until things improved. A bit like General Motors was doing up until last summer? Criminal? I do not know, but to the spiritual point at hand... The financial economic credit crisis of 2008...

The billions and billions and billions of dollars of bad paper may or may not have involved conscious fraud at various places along the line, but whether it did or not, people apparently bought and sold the bad paper on a massive, unimaginably large scale as if it was good, and when the system imploded, everyone around the world had parted with their money to the tune of 100s of billions of dollars, and they were, in essence, as best I can tell left holding virtually totally worthless pieces of paper and IOUs. (And then we got to see Paulson’s lovely mug endlessly on the tube!) But why did it all happen, and why was it a spiritual matter of dysfunctional human interaction?

The situation evolved and got completely out of hand because of bad rules and regulations (that is, laws by Congress) and/or poor enforcement of good financial securities laws, self-evidently you might say given the billions and billions and billions of dollars of bad paper that made their way into the financial system. Unquestionably, either the Congress did not make good laws (that is, rules and regulations) and/or the President and SEC were asleep at the switch, so to speak, on a level unprecedented not only in the history of America but mankind on earth?

You will notice that both of these failures and conditions of the legislative and executive branches represent spiritual matters and not simply doing outright immoral or corrupt deeds. The legislative and executive branches either did not have the will or the wisdom to do the right thing, and it was probably a combination of both, that is, will and wisdom or heart and mind, but not just mind as "knowledge" but mind as "insight" also a spiritual condition as much as a mental one or specifically moral one. It is, yet again on this website, all a matter of "will and wisdom," spiritually speaking, in good faith human interaction.

The sad case of one Senator Daschle also reveals the underlying spiritual problems in DC and the spiritual problems of good laws, and the will and wisdom to desirable regulation, but not in the way it was portrayed in the Press... I have always liked Daschle, and I have always thought he is a very honorable man. The tax thing was obviously a mess and what made the news, but there were other larger issues involved in the affair that struck me as not being really corruption of the man, but failures of the system that no one mentioned. If one is a "consultant" and speech maker one can make millions upon millions in fees but not if one is a "lobbyist" or some such thing? There is no dishonesty here, just a structurally flawed system, yet again, poor regulation and laws? Big time?

Is this what we send people to Washington to do, to make laws that allow for "the big cash in" on their service? Without knowing the details, this clearly does not pass the smell test. This is, yet again, human interaction failures in making good laws whether in corrupt lawmakers or just plain foolish lawmakers. Look, I have been to DC and heard Senators speak at meetings, and they are pretty good speakers, and an honorarium of some sort might be in order, but they just did not have that much to say for truly big bucks. Maybe, if you were a former President, I could see it, but a system where you cash in big time for public speaking just for being a former Senator seems slightly broken to me, and certainly not what the founders envisioned nor even what we had just a generation or two ago? Again, no outright immoral action here but just more spiritual matters and spiritual problems of one sort or another, and one on top of another in seemingly bad laws (that is, poor regulation), which is part of the pattern of laws out of DC, time and again these days? It is a spiritual matter, clearly.

We are in national crisis without a larger vision for the nation, and we must work our way out of this mess!!! I had a wiretap on the President’s phone last week. (I do have my connections!) For security reasons I can only divulge a portion of the conversation, but I quote our President straight from the wiretap... "Tom, good buddy, I don’t need this." The rest of the conversation is not fit to print, but, the gist of it was, "If you do not ‘shoot yourself’ (figuratively speaking) in 24 hours, I’ll do it for you, take your pick, my administration is being rocked by one major scandal after another, and I cannot take another!" But, let’s be honest, to be fair, the problem, is not with our new President!!! Obama’s career has had nothing to do with corrupt Illinois politics, nor Senator Daschle’s problems, nor the faulty leadership of the Democrat Party over the last 20 or 30 or even 40 years.

And, besides, our national problems are much larger and more deep-seated! We are a nation in crisis, not just politically or even morally but self-evidently in will and wisdom issues spiritually! And, further, we are often not in good faith for the good of the nation but simply doing interest group advocacy, yet another spiritual problem! And, further, we are not yet quite ready to deal with virtually any of this very painful spiritual reality condition. "De-nial" is not just a river in Egypt!!! We have serious long-term social, cultural, and economic problems, and no one, our current President (for all his admirable efforts to bring us all together) nor either political Party, is addressing these issues. We, today, have no larger, workable theory of good and just government for a prosperous and healthy economy! In a larger sense these are not really moral problems, as such, but rather good faith, spiritual will and wisdom problems if and when we all get on board with good, and rational, and just government.

Will the current economic "Stimulus Plan" work to stimulate the economy? Maybe, maybe not? I think Obama is correct that "doing nothing" does not seem to be a good option, and that is not a position one can negotiate with, clearly. On the other hand, that does not mean that the current plan is necessarily a good one, and many Republicans see it to be ill-conceived for good economic results, but rather it is, they say, primarily to serve the interests of Democrat pet projects. Is that true? I have no idea, but you will note all of this is a matter of good faith politics, or no, and of spiritual matters of will and wisdom to come up with a good package that will work. Hence, spiritual matters of will and wisdom, over, and over, and over again.

As a practical and political matter the "Stimulus Plan" will either work, or it won’t. Obama has asked, repeatedly, for several months for his Plan to play itself out, and then we’ll see? I, personally, think we should give him at least 6 months. This all reminds me a bit of the Surge in Iraq! We all had our doubts, I think, but Bush (actually Petraus) pulled it off, remarkably, but it took a good 6 months. Maybe, Obama and the Democrats will be as "lucky," maybe not. For the sake of the Republic I sure hope so, but you never know, and the Democrats have pretty much been running the country since ‘06, and none too well? But, still, another 4 to 6 months are not unreasonable to ask for, and by then things may even start to turn around of their own accord! (So, "heroes" or "dogs" by summer? Presumably, more or less?) And, in recent weeks, the Liberals have even figured out that blank checks for Medicare and Medicaid will probably bankrupt us! Surprise, surprise? Sharp as tacks, these Democrat guys and gals are? Yet, again, spiritual matters of will and wisdom, and good policy, over and over...

Bottom-line on America’s current auto, financial/ credit, and political economic crises? They are all spiritual matters manifesting themselves in dysfunctional, often bad faith human interaction, tragically so, and we do not have the will and/or wisdom for good faith healthy prosperous interaction or to be able to so make good and just rules for the economic, social and political games we all play and participate in. Still cannot follow this? It is all like football...

I have been saying for years that life and even the economy are a lot like a football game and league. Congress is the rules committee for the league, the executive branch is the referees, and we, the people, are the players fulfilling ourselves to the best of our ability in good faith interaction and "competition" and so forth on the playing field of life, both for our own personal fulfillment and for the success of our team or, that is, institutions and companies for which we work, and, ultimately, it is all to the benefit of the game itself, that is, for life in the nation as a whole for the entire society and economy. Tragically, today, Congress writes bad and unwise rules and regulations (that is, laws) and, hence, often ruins the game and the economy for everyone, and the executive branch ref too often shows up at the game without his whistle. "Nobody told me to bring it..." Yes, it is a spiritual thing, definitely I think...