The WSJ & Symbolic Structures & The Future

The Monitor of Metaluna,

portrayed by the great Douglas Spencer, or "Scottie"

I have been an anti-fan of the WSJ, Wall Street Journal, forever it seems. It gave me the creeps even when I was studying for my MBA. There it is; that terror-inspiring combination: Boomers and MBAs! We gave you George W. Bush. We gave you now-you-see-it-now-you-don't economy. I suppose I could add a few more bad Boomer notions designed to eventually destroy our lives as surely as Metaluna was destroyed by Zahgon, but that is a story for another time From W.C.Varones blog:  
W.C. Varones Blog
Loan Modification is Evil
http://wcvarones.blogspot.com/2009/01/loan-modification-is-evil.html  

The WSJ: If the intent is to help homeowners, then foreclosure is undoubtedly the best solution. Household balance sheets have been destroyed by taking on too much debt via the purchase of inflated assets. With so little savings, a household with negative equity almost implies negative net worth. Walking away from the mortgage immediately repairs the balance sheet. ...

Of course, they are quite right. When first I heard of this matter of walking away from mortgages about a year ago, I had to stop and think a bit. We had been brought up to pay what we owe, not walk away. However, given the situation, I almost immediately concurred. After all, a credit rating did not mean too much anymore in the debris of the bursting bubbles, and there was probably at least a 2 in 3 chance of re-establishing it some time in the future - a full pardon with credit for time served.

This is the type of thing to remember when I start in on Symbols and symbolic structures: our lives are so much based on interconnected stories and scenarios and even stage directions ( "write out check by the 5th of the month, so it will arrive by the 10th" and so on). Symbols can be complex, not just simple. We tend to use the language paradigm, picking out nouns, and saying that "apple" stands for all apples, present, past, and future. "Apple" is a word and sort of sums up the phenomenon of language from symbolic viewpoint. It does not. Symbols may be complex. The structure " an apple a day keeps the doctor away." is a complex symbolic structure.
However, beyond being just a complex creation of individual symbols, it itself is a symbol. What does it stand for, I hear you demand? Well, immediately it "stands for" a certain attitude towards one's own health. And it "stands for" a certain intentionality. In short, it is a part of the symbolic structure of our lives: the intention to take care of one's self and avoid having to go to Health Inc., the scheduling of nutrition to include at least 1 apple a day, and the "simple" symbols - like "apple".
So when I said, yeah; I guess it's o.k. to walk away and send the keys to the bank, I was doing what billions of human beings have done in our history: they responded to great change and great stress by altering the symbolic structure of their lives: no longer need I invest all my spiritual capital in the notion that I must HONOR all my freely incurred debts!

Maybe there is some connection to "forgive our debts, as we forgive our debtors"? And here is where the crux lies: when you change the story ( the symbolic structure ) you had bloody well better make sure that the new stories are dreams, not nightmares. Essentially, this is what occurred to Germany in the early 20th century: agony of war, agony of defeat, and the torture of inflation and economic catastrophe. Hence, not only were their material lives changed, but their spiritual, also. The symbolic structure shifted in vast ways; new stories were redacted into the script of Life, new directions, new expectations, new narratives. BUT, the new stories were not dreams, rather they were nightmares. We have had enough nightmares. The new stories must be the right ones, else we lose.
AND so far, we have not had the right stories. Inspect everything you believe; you will find stories you accepted from others: from parents, teachers, media, history books. What have you established on your own? And how moral are your own stories?
The time is now. If we wait, we shall run out of time, and shall have to accept whatever story is offerred us by our new Overlords.