As the temporary ability to pay increases, restraint recedes and a culture of feeding and exciting appetites grows. As virtue is the moderation or even denial of appetites, moral integrity in society as a whole weakens as this culture gains ground. When limits to our consumption seem to fall away, the desire for acquisition and domination becomes stronger and it begins to be expressed in our relations with the rest of the world. We begin to define our interests to satisfy unbounded desire, and so the scope of what we believe is rightfully ours expands until it encircles most, if not all, of the globe, and we are then violently offended when our claims are challenged. Coupled with this desire is the fantasy that technology will gradually overcome or address every limitation, so that every barrier to growth will fall sooner or later. The expectation of progress makes us impatient when our excesses lead to collapses, and when those collapses happen responsibility is deferred again and pinned on useful scapegoats whose punishment will allow us to return to our previous unrestrained habits.Basically. The trouble is that can anyone win an election saying this? For my money, moderation is as nonpartisan as getting an education--its just makes sense. But are we ready to hear that message? Or have we been lulled to sleep. The scariest part about that two minute Barack Obama ad was when he asked the viewer to go read his economic plan. It felt unique to me, in that it asked us to do something almost for him, and I guess for ourselves. But I kept thinking, will people really do that? Are we ready to act like adults yet?
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Courtesy of Andrew, here's Daniel Larison, mirroring Bacevich, on the American predicament:
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When we get hit in the pocketbook in America, we begin to meditate on our "culture of excess" and try to expunge our guilt while simultaneously find some larger meaning in downward driven line-graphs. Meanwhile about 1/6th of us have been HUNGRY, goddamnit, all along: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7622275.stm
I wish you could take a poll to see which of your readers gets the title reference.
And no, Americans are not ready to actually take responsibility to inform themselves and make sacrifices. But Americans may be ready to support a candidate who encourages individual responsibility and sacrifice, assuming that you can put that message in a tight little narrative package. I think that may have been what Obama was trying to do here.
LOVE the Wu reference in the title
I'd put moderation in the same camp as always paying your monthly minimum on credit cards and keeping your tires properly inflated. Not flashy stuff, but just common sense.
I'm with Laborlibert. I think it's hilarious to see hip hop references on the front page of the Atlantic.
And again, no way are the spoiled brats that are the American electorate ready to be denied. I think it's deeply ingrained in the national psyche - "American exceptionalism" means never having to take no for an answer.
Torture indeed, no?
And Andrew, these days, I call moderation not carrying a balance at all. If I didn't need to rent cars so often, I'd have none. Not that I'm standing on any high horse. I only say that having done my share of damage via credit...Sometimes I wonder if there's something wrong with buying a home via a loan.
It is more grim than I expect Sen. Obama can use, but I've been thinking that the best I hope for in the next many years would be 'Austerity without fear.' I think the austerity is inevitable, but it sure would be nice to not be terrified that a health or job crisis would be the end of a family's financial security.
TC says : "Sometimes I wonder if there's something wrong with buying a home via a loan."
No, there isn't, if you can pay back the loan.
You're welcome :-)
Obama's been on that moderation tip for a while now. Remember how he got killed for the whole "set your thermostats a little lower in the winter" remarks?
Unfortunately I don't think most of the electorate is ready for to be told we have to be more responsible.
"I call moderation not carrying a balance at all."
Why not charge, but payoff at the end of the month. I get a free airline ticket each year, plus the money's in the bank earning me interest for an extra month.
On houses, it's not loans but lack of moderation. Why do so many people with one kid have 4000 sq ft houses. It's the huge increase in size and amenities that has helped make housing unaffordable for the middle class. Most people don't belive a 1200 sq ft 1.5 bath ranch is good enough anymore, even if that's what they can afford.
Afford didn't use to mean "as much as I can get some fool to lend me."
Yeah that's what I meant by not carrying a balance--basically not carrying it past a month, as opposed to paying the minimum.
What's amazing is, I always thought of moderation, frugality, self-reliance, as virtues that Americans identify as really American, at least on the Jeffersonian, agrarian side of our history (and myth). Holds true for pioneering the frontier, too: you have to be willing to live with austerity to set up a homestead, live through a winter, etc. But it's true that now any politician proposing a little common sense moderation gets raked over the coals for it.
I think one of Obama's strengths, that makes him seem so refreshing and exciting, is that he does ask the audience for a little something in return, even in the tone of speaking that suggests he believes that we are really capable of listening and hearing something at an adult level. No politician of my era has done that so effectively.
Of course, for those who like the style of a George W. Bush, I guess it isn't a strength at all.
The scariest part about that two minute Barack Obama ad was when he asked the viewer to go read his economic plan. It felt unique to me, in that it asked us to do something almost for him, and I guess for ourselves. But I kept thinking, will people really do that? Are we ready to act like adults yet?
Or the most cynical part. What he's really doing there is saying, "I have a plan, and you can trust me on that because I just showed the web address on the screen, so a plan must exist, and I hope that satisfies you, because really, I'm kinda counting on you not going and reading the plan because if you did, you'd probably realize that none of it would fix the crisis we're in - that in fact, none of it even bears on the crisis we're in." Seriously, did you read the plan? Or were you just comforted by the fact that he supposedly has one, and inspired to reflections about how noble it was of him to ask you to read it? Other than that, since the Internet blew up, every candidate for the Presidency has asked you at one point or another to go read their economic plan. It's not this new, bold, high-minded thing. It's a political ploy to make you think they've got a plan. Then you go read it and it's garbage.
I was comforted by the fact that he said it. It was all I needed to hear. It made me feel so warm and fuzzy about world. That's all I really need. To feel warm. And fuzzy. Can't forget fuzzy.
Well, you'll find it even more comforting, then, that when you go read "the whole plan," you learn that Obama will (and I'm not making this up, these are the real bulletpoints):
create jobs
create 5 million green jobs
[create] new jobs
[encourage] technology, innovation, and creating jobs
support small business
enact a windfall profits tax on excessive oil company profits [thereby raising gas prices by the amount of the tax] to give American families [only hard-working American families - Dutch families, terrorist families, and/or lazy loner serial killers need not apply] an immediate $1000 energy rebate to help families pay rising bills [that way, you'll be able to afford to pay for the gas that the tax will have made more expensive]
give a $1000 tax cut to middle class American families
[create] work/family balance
crack down on mortgage fraud
and lastly,
address predatory credit card practices. [Biden's experience in receiving contributions (as well as his house) from credit card companies will help with that.]
So now you know how it's gonna be. (Of course, in a post-bailout world, he can't actually afford any of this -see Megan's latest posts - but Obama's no flip-flopper - he sticks to his outdated plans.)
Moderation is a tough sell no matter what. Many don't want to save more, do without or exercise. With respect to moderation, I think one of our more important problems as a nation is that we are too fat. DIabetes is exploding and is so damn costly. We wonder why our health care costs are so high, and a lot is because 30% of us are obese.
It isn't a partisan issue, but partisans all try to make their lame points. I read liberal sites that blame obesity on corporations,corn syrup or dismiss it as a plot by big pharma. Michael Moore falsely claims that the American diet has nothing to do with our poor health outcomes (claims the French are worse but live longer).
And you get Limbaugh decrying "the food nazis" whenever a public interest group has the nerve to point out that kung pow chicken is worse than a Big Mac and fries.
Moderation, in food for example, can be unifying across ideologies. The conservative disgust of hedonist behavior with the liberal idea of "your body is a temple". It can apply in finance as well, with the right promoting stodginess(by saying you need 20% down and get a thrity year fixed) and the left can attack crass materialism (you don't need a 5000 SQ FT house or a Hummer)
Amen to Asher, I didn't feel reassured at all, given that his plan tries to pay for everything by increasing taxes on rich people and corporations, and reducing inefficiencies in government. On the first, it's an unrealistic sop to the middle class (and was before any of the recent bailouts hit), and the second is simply laughable coming from someone pledging to dramatically increase discretionary spending and balloon government agencies. Obama gives no concrete examples of "moderation" in his economic plan, nor does he give any specifics about the incredibly tough fiscal choices facing the next administration. Instead he gently asks you to read his plan, as though it were some magical palliative that will only involve sacrifice from the mythical top 1%, leaving everyone else feeling warm and fuzzy and reassured.