Marshmallow People

The world economy limped into the new year on crutches; battered and bruised from mismanagement, greed, and plain outright theft. The media keeps churning out the bad news and it seems that everyone is jumping onto the blame game wagon. Fingers are pointing left, right and center. The government made bad decisions. The banks mismanaged their funds. The Auto industry was too arrogant. Wall street is too greedy. And the litany continues. The armchair pundits are now expert and have the solution to every little and not so little problem of the world.

But you know, the more I think it about it, the more I think we should be looking elsewhere, as the saying goes, we have found the enemy, and the enemy is us. When personal debt is at an all time high, our credit cards maxed out, our homes being foreclosed upon ... ultimately, the responsibility is our own. Ease of credit does not mean irresponsible use of it, and irresponsible use of credit my friends is what has got us into hock.

When is it that we began to shed ourselves off of prudence and good fiscal management; of kindness and courtesy; of expectations of ourselves and responsibility? When? Was it when looking out for number one came to mean selfishness and self promotion? Was it when we took out yet another credit card to pay for the last one? Was it when we stopped holding ourselves accountable, not to someone else, but to ourselves? Or did we get "ourselves" into such a state of myopia that we could no longer see that which was before us --- a slow deterioration of a society? We have become marshmallow people, you know, all soft and pudgy and no backbone save the skewer that will roast us over the fire. We are feeling that fire now.

Let the governments do what needs to be done. Let us do what we need to do. Financial ups and downs will always be there. They are not always of our making. But if we manage our lives better, chances are the world will be governed better too. The buck does not stop at the threshold of the Prime Minister or the President, it stops on your threshold and mine.