Can you feel it?

Can you feel it?

When I was a teenager in the early portion of the roaring 90’s, I had a feeling deep in my gut that things were not going to end well for the great social experiment founded so long ago by the brave men we call our forefathers. I would read the news of the day, talking about how the country’s debt was starting to rise by what then was considered to be unconscionable amounts of money but now seems only like a drop in the bucket. The music of the nineties was certainly no help. Depressing, warning of social inequality and even driving artists to self medicate it away with others going even further and ending their lives.

I had only a small group of friends who shared my belief that the system was something not worth giving yourself to in order to fuel the machine. It was a hard time, the 90’s, to be pessimistic about the future state of world, national and local events. The decade featured the greatest technological, social and governmental advances in human history. Certainly, above all, there was prosperity like had never been seen. Eventually, I even gave in and joined the party, moving to a large metropolitan area and joining an internet firm that blossomed like any other company with a dot com, net or ‘communications’ in their suffix.

Then, of course, I was brought back to the reality I hid from even myself in the early part of 2001 when the stock market rebuked the internet firms that were based entirely on the dream philosophy “if you build it, they will come.” I dropped back out of the system. Soon after of course, 9-11 happened – and the massive decline that most certainly was based on the speculative bubble had a new alibi to blame in terrorism. I watched in amazement as our government ramped up the war machine. Sold to us as patriotic revenge, but really to hide the fact that our country’s Madoff-esque ponzi scheme was coming to an end, the wars served to secure our “non-negotiable” interstate driving, prop up the big bank-manipulated markets and to distract us all by keeping us in the dark about what our future held.

But even then things still seemed like they might be okay. I consciously put the illegal wars in the back of my mind. Real estate seemed to take off and people I knew were making more money than ever before. Sure, it was proven that Colin Powell knowingly lied to justify war before the world at the United Nations – but it was okay. We were still able to drive to the supermarket at less than two bucks per gallon for our cheesy poofs and to Florida for thrill rides at Disney. Who was I to argue when people my parents’ age were able to pull hundreds of thousands of dollars in equity from their homes to retire early, and my contemporaries were able to buy their first home by simply filling out a form and getting the keys to a four hundred thousand dollar cape on an eighth of an acre. Sure, the 00’s didn’t feel as great as the nineties, but they were close enough for comfort. The can had been kicked just far enough down the road to keep us sedate.

Then came the fall of Lehman Brothers in 2008 and soon after the real estate collapse. Suddenly, the can met a dip in the road and started to roll backwards. Panic set in, but to our rescue came the marketing campaign of the century. It was one of hope and change; a campaign that seemed to honestly address all of the issues that were plaguing our country and one that promised to make it all right. I bought it lock, stock and barrel. I registered as a democrat. I waited in line in front of Portland High School in the cold wind and snow to cast the vote I believed was going to make everything better and make the 90’s return. Ultimately, I was let down – but I wasn’t surprised.

Now, things are worse and the prospect of returning to even the semi-okay days of 2006 are zero to none. Instead of leveling with us about what’s really going on, our leaders insist that the good times are just ahead. It turns out that they’re lying to us.

The indisputable facts are that our national debt can never be repaid; The worldwide demand for oil has now officially surpassed supply; Massive worldwide droughts this spring are going to cause a global food crises come fall; The Fukushima nuclear plant’s three meltdowns are worse than Chernobyl, have eliminated 40% of the electricity capacity in Japan and have effectively shut down the world’s 3^rd largest economy causing a massive shortage in the industrial pipelines that supply everything technological; And there are trillions of dollars in credit default swap options that can never be covered – more than in 2008. Basically, we’re in the beginning stages of global systemic and economic collapse.

So locally, I smile when I see community gardens. I rejoice when I hear of the establishment of local currencies. I get excited for projects that are creating affordable lodgings in the form of a hostel. I greet public transportation plans with open arms. But when our local leaders are still throwing money at the past with their various TIFs to build mega centers, posh lawyer quarters and airports that won’t be utilized only to turn around and forecast increases in revenue, I know even the people leading Portland are buying the government’s story. But I’m getting the sense that the people that live here aren’t. So, can you feel it? I can.

Let’s find a mayor who can, too.