3.27.10 – Plutocracy or bust?

I finally watched Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story today. I kept putting it off, believing it would upset or depress me. It did do a bit of both, especially after talking heatedly at a Coffee Party meeting today about politics and health care reform.

I grew up during the Reagan years of excess, and being poor, or more importantly, being from an unhappy and dysfunctional poor family, I dreamed of a life like what I saw on The Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous and Dynasty. In graduate school, I ended up pursuing a focus in fundraising, one because I wanted to be able to support myself and didn’t have the courage to believe that would happen through art making and, somewhat subconsciously, a desire to be around people with money and escape my upbringing. My ten years as a nonprofit fundraiser was quite an eye-opener in seeing that the grass was most definitely not greener on the other side, at least not always. It’s still a necessity to have money in this country, but it really isn’t any guarantee you’ll be happy or free to do what you want.



One of the bonus segments featured on the Capitalism DVD was President Carter’s speech to the nation in 1979, where he stated, “owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning.” I learned this first hand over the years and paid the financial price, as I kept accumulating things while I stifled my creativity.

Unfortunately there are still too many people suffering from greed and the need to fill their lives one way or another. One would think the current economic meltdown would have woken enough people up, yet too many still want to cling to the “all for me and none for anyone else” mindset that has gotten our country in such a mess.