December 29, 2009: Reflections on the end of a decade

2009 was not the capstone to any sweeping piece of well-designed architecture. It was more of a stick of dynamite, a wrecking ball aimed at dismantling the failing structures of the American dream. For decades, Americans took easy growth and progress for granted, left decisions to the thoughtless and to the greediest, without paying heed to need or future stability. 2009 was the denouement, the final curtain call after a sick, selfish stage play spanning a couple decades. For those of us lucky enough to have been raised in stable households in comfortable suburbs, it was an awakening, a call to reality, a realization that things will not always go better in the future, that we may not necessarily be better off than our parents, even if we work hard. Things may not go as planned as they did for past generations; raises and new jobs and positive returns on investments are not guaranteed by some beneficent force; the stock market is not designed to improve the quality of our lives or to pad our pockets with gradual accruals of unearned wealth. Dreams can pass without coming to fruition, and complete and utter failure is possible, despite the best of intentions, genuine efforts and well laid plans. This comfortable, stable life we dreamed up, assumed was given, is not the truth, and upward is not the only way things go. Gravity has returned to our atmosphere. Some of us may be crushed under the weight of its unexpected but inevitable return, but others will return to their exercises, reminded to build their muscle in a threatening and challenging world.

Entitlement has emerged as the illusion it is, despite twenty or thirty years worth of appearing to be the logical end of a simple progression toward collective betterment. Prosperity is a state that must be earned and carefully maintained, and is not a self-sustaining state of being, an equilibrium designed to best provide for most, as some have deceived us into believing. The blinding pace we’ve set toward the future is no longer just an exciting ride, but also a frightening one. The great American machine has shown its age, foolishness and disrepair, but continues to lurch forward. We have not cleared the hurdles we set for ourselves, and have stumbled and fallen, together. There is wisdom in this loss of confidence, and 2009 was a call to earnest, honest reflection on our collective trajectory. We must be concerned.

The decades preceding 2009 were a testament to the power of collective, willful blindness. From now on, we will no longer be seduced by our own successes, or those of others. The slick and efficient, selective forgetfulness of two generations worth of Americans has been thrust before our eyes. The future is no longer one of certainty, comfort or even stability. But perhaps for all the brutality of failure and struggle, this is more real. Now, in 2010 and onward into this new century, we will see if we have really lost our abilities, our skills and our visions, as some of us suspect we may have, during decades of ease and decadence. Our mettle will be tested again and again by new, larger challenges, and the center of our universe will shift, possibly outside the borders of this country.

Now we will see if our seemingly endless potential for denial and our appetite for ease will be our downfall. We will see if repair is possible.