“I would tell him to shrug”
America is marching into the future not willingly, but kicking and screaming. I can hardly blame her.
For those of you reading this out of boredom or simply because you’re wondering what I’m talking about now that the headline and intro have grabbed your attention, perhaps you’ve missed the news of late. Here’s a brief recap:
The auto industry is floundering. I mean, it doesn’t have just one foot in the grave; it’s got on its Sunday best, the coffin is ready to be lowered, and they say the service is going to start at any minute. If you’re working for Ford or GM, you thank God you got to go to work today. If you work for Chrysler, well let’s face it, you don’t work for Chrysler any more because it is about to perform its great vanishing act. I’m being a little lighthearted about a very grave situation for many, many Americans, but let’s face it, folks: GM and Ford got called to the principal’s office and I don’t think they’re coming back with just a few weeks of detention.
Which moves us into the second phase of the recap: what’s been going on over at Capitol Hill? A lot, but you’d hardly be at fault for not noticing, given that the world is still broken. Most recently, there’s been a big huff about CO2. See, that was a pun. But seriously, carbon dioxide is bad, m’kay — at least, so say the EPA and our new leader, President Obama. A daring new ruling has just hit the Oval Office after two years of study. Back then, in 2007, Bush was dealing with a ruling by the Supreme Court over whether or not CO2 was a harmful substance, and if it was should the EPA be tasked with regulating it. Well, word has now just conveniently got back that, hey, CO2 is pretty fucking terrible for the planet, and we should probably stop making so much of it.
Now, that sounds like a good idea, right? Well I certainly thought so back in October when Obama was calling for a Cap’n'Trade policy on greenhouse gases. Back then, the general idea was that greenhouse gases were really bad, and in order to reduce our dependence on foreign oil as well as rescue the earth for suffocation, we would limit the amount of pollutants we release as country, and charge ourselves if we went over the set limit. Noble idea, no?
Apparently “no” was what Congress thought. Six months, a Democratic majority in the House and Senate, and a new Democratic president later, the Senate votes almost unanimously that no ruling on emissions control should be passed if it raises the prices of electricity and fuel. Whoa. Didn’t we just, you know, vote for the guy that said, quite publicly, we will limit emissions and tax ourselves for using too much? And now Congress is all like, “Whoa buddy. In case you didn’t notice there’s a recession going on. We can’t really afford all these wacky ideas of yours.” Obama’s response? “Yes, you can.”
Remember that bill I mentioned regarding the EPA? Well Obama certainly did, and now he’s wielding it in the form of a gun, trained on the Senate. Here’s the ultimatum: either the Senate sticks to its guns and says no to cap’n'trade, or Obama will likely enact EPA control over CO2 emissions, assuming it is within his power to do so. That, folks, would be very, very bad. Whenever the government is in charge, it usually is pretty bad, but when it comes to air? Do you think we can just warden off our air and separate it from China’s or Europe’s? There isn’t even a plausible way to differentiate air polluted by the US and air polluted by Mexico (well, the smell of tacos might tip us off…)! If the EPA forces sanctions on limiting emissions, not only would the failing Auto industry be the first to die, but the energy grid would be next in line (even though it should be first in line, since it creates the majority of our pollutants, at about 34%). That’s bad. Real bad.
But what about Obama’s cap’n'trade plan, though? Honestly, I really don’t know. Lesser of two evils? Certainly. The right way to go? Maybe. The right move for our country right now? I’m not so sure.
Our country, no, the entire world, is going to have to stand accountable for the gluttonous consumption of the past at some point in the near future. We will all be judge, jury, and executioner for one another, and the consequences will no doubt take a heavy toll on us all. The high and mighty will surely be the first to be cut down and sacrificed, sinners and merchants of death all of them (ya right), but it will be you and me, dear reader, who will have to look at ourselves in the mirror and say, “Wasn’t there something I could have done to help stop this?”
There was, and still is. Make no mistake, and do not doubt your decisions so far. Barrack Obama was the correct choice for president. Regardless of whether or not his policies are the safest or most sound, we now have a president that is willing to give us all a swift kick in the ass and get us back on our feet… though I admit the logistics of that make it sound like he’s just a bully. Still! we must press on. The banks and the foreclosures were only the beginning of a long and drawn out reckoning. But with every institution that falls, a lesson is learned and a new opportunity springs forth. Personal computers stopped selling? Smartphones and netbooks (very small laptops) have sprung up to take their place. The housing market is stagnant? Could you pick a better time to be looking for an apartment or condo, you fresh out of college, broke-ass student? Chrysler is going bankrupt? Did you that they were ranked as one of the worst car manufacturers in the world by Consumer Reports? Did you know that Chapter 11, should they fall into it, would allow the company to restructure and actually have a chance at being less terrible than it was before? Black cloud, silver lining, so on and so forth.
It’s not all coming up roses, but then again it never did to begin with. We’re humans; we stand up, walk forward, trip, fall down, and pick ourselves back up. If there never were any mistakes to learn from, there would be no interest in trying anything new. (Why try to fly if we weren’t born with wings? Even then, it’s not like the Wright Bros. got it in one take and stopped there.)
Right now, the government is too scared of the new to accept any lesson it may be taught. I say go ahead and make the leap. No matter the outcome, we’re bound to be better by it.
(P.S. The title of this post refers to the climax of Atlas Shrugged, when John Galt explains that if he were to meet the Titan Atlas and consult him about his enormous burden, there would be no greater sign of defiance, or personal strength, than to shrug the weight of the world off as if it were nothing. So to all of you reading this worried about your personal futures in these dire times–shrug.)
